Today, Nov. 23, marks the 15th anniversary of Beck's seventh studio album Midnite Vultures, which abandoned nearly all the singer's folk influences in favor of deliriously psychedelic funk, hip-hop and R&B. It is Beck's most fun album and arguably his best — at least I would argue that, and so would Vulture — so to celebrate its anniversary, here are the album's 11 songs ranked, from worst to best.
11. "Milk and Honey"
In the strangest way, this song reminds me of a busier and more psychedelic take on a Jack White song. As someone who is not a fan of Jack White's solo work — I love The White Stripes, though — this is not exactly a compliment. At times it seems like all the weird sound effects and production tricks are simply making up for weak songwriting, though "I can smell the VD in the club tonight" is an incredible lyric.
10. "Pressure Zone"
After becoming so entranced with the party-funk atmosphere of Midnite Vultures, hearing distorted electric guitars comes across as a little safe and predictable, especially from an alt-rock artist. Of course, this being a Beck song, "Pressure Zero" still has plenty of trippy and highly inventive production tricks, but it's just not nearly as exciting as the album's other tracks.
9. "Hollywood Freaks"
Allmusic cites "Hollywood Freaks" as the album's worst song, suggesting that it sounds "like a parody" of hip-hop, but that is what I like about it. Beck's relationship with hip-hop as always been ironic — the chorus to "Loser" is a lament for how bad he is at rapping — but this "parody" is not coming from a mean-spirited place. It is coming from a place of love, which is why it works so well as a legitimate, late-1990s, hip-hop track.
8. "Debra"
If "Hollywood Freaks" is a parody of late-'90s hip-hop, then "Debra" is surely a parody of the decade's beloved R&B slow jams. What makes this song truly remarkable, though, is the way in which it incorporates smooth '90s R&B in the verses but then shifts to the more soulful R&B of the '60s and '70s for its triumphant choruses.
7. "Peaches and Cream"
Midnight Vultures is not a guitar-centric album, but Beck piled all the album's best guitar ideas into "Peaches and Cream," from the flickering riff in the intro to the interlocking leads in the verse and chorus to the acoustic 12-string that shines through in the middle section.
6. "Broken Train"
While the production on the rest of Midnite Vultures is dense and hectic, Beck takes a step back with "Broken Train" and gives the song some room to breathe. It comes off as mechanical, but not in the sense that it is soulless — rather in the sense that we are hearing the unadorned inner workings of the track with none of the edges smoothed out.
5. "Beautiful Way"
The album's most laidback song, "Beautiful Way" starts off reminiscent of The Beach Boys's "Pet Sounds" — the song, not the album — with its atmospheric jingle bell/güiro backing track, but then morphs into the closest thing that Midnite Vultures has to a ballad. It's probably the only song on the album you could not play at a party, but it is still beautiful.
4. "Nicotine and Gravy"
As the next four songs prove, Midnite Vultures is quite frontloaded, with all the best songs coming at the beginning. The album's second track, "Nicotine and Gravy," is less explosive and buoyant than the rest of the album, but it grooves along with a crackly drum beat and bass line that would have fit right in on Paul's Boutique. The vaguely Middle Eastern melodies that close out the song, however, are testaments to Beck's trademark genre blending.
3. "Get Real Paid"
Beck drops the funk facade for just a bit with "Get Real Paid," which replaces the horns and slinky guitars with a great synthy backdrop that sounds like Kraftwerk if they knew how to party. The origins of Robyn's electro-pop masterpiece Body Talk can be traced back to a song like this.
2. "Sexx Laws"
Midnite Vultures bursts out of the gate with "Sexx Laws," the album's best-known song and one of the most joyous that Beck has ever written. Though the lyrical content is typically beautiful Beck nonsense, with lines about "pixilated doctors" and a "hepatitis contact lens," the music is more dance and funk-oriented than anything he had written before, though the banjo and lap-steel breakdown show that he had not completely excised his country instincts.
1. "Mixed Bizness"
You know that a song is specifically designed for the dance floor when its chorus is nothing more than "All right / Turn it up now." Though Beck's '90s work had a streak of Gen-X ironic detachment, a song like "Mixed Bizness" simply works too well to be considered anything other than an earnest, genuine funk anthem — though not too many funk songs had lyrics about making "all the lesbians scream."
What are your favorite songs from Midnite Vultures? What did I get wrong? Let me know down in the comments section.
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