It seems that Beck in 2010 — 16 years after the release of his breakthrough album “Mellow Gold” — holds a privileged place in pop music not unlike the one Bob Dylan held in the mid-’70s.
In 1975, Dylan’s best work was behind him, but he was still young and revered and comfortable enough with his own identity as a celebrity to enjoy the perks that came with it. That included assembling a large stable of artists — Joan Baez, screenwriter and actor Sam Shepard, poet Allen Ginsberg, the guitarist from David Bowie’s glam-rock band and Roger McGuin of the Byrds — to go on tour with him as the Rolling Thunder Revue. Dylan documented the event with an experimental film called “Renaldo and Clara.”
In a similar vein, Beck has been gathering large casts of friends and musicians — including MGMT, Devendra Banhart, Wilco, Feist, actor and Beck’s brother-in-law Giovanni Ribisi — to knock out covers of classic albums in a day.
Beck’s calling it his “Record Club,” stressing on the Web site where he posts the songs the rough, informal nature of the recordings. He states: “There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens.”
The Record Club began last year, and the first two albums Beck and his friends covered were “Velvet Underground and Nico” and “The Songs of Leonard Cohen,” the debut albums from the Velvet Underground and Leonard Cohen respectively. Both were originally released in 1967.
The fun of listening to the Record Club versions is similar to watching the “Oceans 11” movies. It may not be a revelatory experience, but listening to (or watching) talented people take such pleasure in their work is always enjoyable.
Some of the songs never rise above a sketch — the Record Club’s version of the Velvet Underground’s “There She Goes” is a mess — but others stand alongside the best versions of this oft-covered material. Beck’s vocal take on “Femme Fatale” is incredibly affecting and, with producer Nigel Godrich on board, he bangs out a noisy, energized take on “Waiting on my Man.”
Aside from an overarching tone of amiable irreverence — giving Cohen’s “Suzanne” a variation on the “Be My Baby” backbeat, for instance — the Record Club doesn’t stray too far from the original versions, with a few exceptions. Beck, MGMT and Banhart do manage to turn Cohen’s dirge “Master Song” into a funky, slacker rap that would sound at home on “Odelay.”
Listening to the Record Club also gives you an excuse to revisit the original albums, which is, after all, part of what makes this a fascinating experiment. Dusting off these hallowed, immutable rock and roll artifacts and kicking them around for a day makes them seem that much more alive.
Beck’s Record Club’s latest entry is a cover of Moby Grape and Jefferson Airplane member Skip Spence’s 1969 solo album “Oar.” Wilco and Feist contributed to it.
Charlotte Gainsbourg: ‘IRM’
Rating: B
For not releasing an album since 2008, Beck has been a busy man. He wrote and produced “IRM,” the third album by the daughter of legendary French pop musician Serge Gainsbourg and actress and singer Jane Birken.
While Gainbourg’s name is on the cover, this sounds undeniably like a Beck album, and it’s the best one he’s released in years.
Named after the French version of an MRI — Gainsbourg suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage in 2007 — the album’s focus on mortality dovetails nicely with Beck’s darkening sensibilities in his later career.
The lyrics remain characteristically oblique, but Gainsbourg, with her pretty, delicate voice, manages to break through the archness that can sometimes stifle Beck’s solo material and bring the album’s emotional themes into a sharper, more resonant focus.
Song of the week
Surfer Blood: ‘Swim (To Reach the End)’
While I have a difficult time believing it, the ’90s are far enough in the distant past that there are now ’90s revival bands.
Surfer Blood — a young Florida band with a great name — is among the most hyped, drawing comparisons to Weezer, Pavement and other avatars of alternative rock. Surfer Blood’s debut album “Astro Coast” is neither as tuneful as Weezer nor as smart as Pavement, but “Swim (To Reach the End),” the album’s anthem, is big enough and packed with enough riffs that you can close your eyes for a moment and pretend it’s still 1995.
Address correspondence to Jeremiah Tucker, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802.#
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Jeremiah Tucker: Beck’s ‘Record Club’ covers classic rock
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