naturalismo

People have been crawling all over themselves to attempt to describe the new sound Beck has ventured into on his new song “Chemtrails,” descriptors ranging from Barrett era Floyd to the gossamer pop of the Beach Boys, unfortunately to my ears it sounds more like straight Caribou. It’s not the end of the world, Caribou is one of my favorite contemporary musicians, so to hear his influence on another one is welcome if anything. It’s just that I can’t help but recall back to a moment at a Coachella a few years back where an unannounced Beck show was underway in one of the small tents. I’d been warned before hand of it, so I was front and center for the show. As Beck segued into another song from Sea Change he caught wind of the next stage over insanity of a Jr Senior show-stopping mid song he announced that he wanted to rock out, it was easy to forget the upbeat sample heavy sound of his heydays. It wasn’t long after that that I read a quote about Guero’s progress stemming partially from a fan walking up to Beck and yelling, “Man, Why don’t you ROCK any more?” I think that Becks been doing some sound searching after Sea Change. It was a landmark achievement in his career, which I think shortly after sparked his point as an artist coping with evolution and maturation of his sound and then artificially attempting to go back and relive his previous sound starting with the album Guero. I’m still highly anticipating his new release and think this new song sounds great, but I am still curious of how direct of an influence I think Caribou sounds to be. Of course I’ll leave my full decision off until I can hear the entire album.

[Download] Beck – Chemtrails

[stream] Beck – Chemtrails

For Reference: Caribou – “She’s the one”

Note by Edvard: I think they both both owe some credit to Aphrodite’s Child, Alexander Skip and especially Lothar and the Hand People.