An Extra Dimension To An Album

Props to Beck, that master singer-songwriter "who transcends genres even as he reinvents them". Part-scientist and part-visionary, I think he's ahead of his time again. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there's a DVD that accompanies his The Information album which contains video clips: to all 16 tracks on the album. Many clips do have that low-budget/editing time home-made feel, but with the popularity of YouTube and the like these days, it still provides good cheap distraction. Anyone who's seen the Foo Fighters' Low film clip might understand! Actually they're a lot like clips of remixed songs, where the remixer "mixes" the clip with their own samples and visual effects.

The funny thing is that the clips themselves mimic the experimental way Beck composes songs. Often random, disjointed and surprising, the clips are heavy on effects and filters, even deferring to pixelated 8-bit graphics in parts, just like the use of electronic beep-like sounds in some tracks. Animal costumes make recurring appearances, which as you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of.

Music television's as popular as ever I would say, and sales of in-car DVD players are slowly getting there. I can totally visualise people buying all albums as DVDs (or CD/DVD doubles) one day. Think about it: most devices that play CDs these days play DVDs too. Why not add an extra dimension to an album? I'd love to be driving in my car and when I pull up to the lights, I can glance over and see what the song is. Maybe use the subtitle feature to toggle showing the song name or for karaoke.

I love extra distractions - I've always got music on in the background while I'm driving, studying, playing video games or using computers around the house. I still find music clips interesting, but when they're alongside a whole album it creates an environment. I just plain respect giving musicians an extra creative outlet to enhance the listener's experience of an album. In this case, it gives a feel of a late-night party after you've come back from a bigger party. It seems like the visual effects are wackier towards the end - you drinkers might understand the parallel there! (Note to self: have a Beck and Beck's night after I move out)

I'm not sure if it'll help prevent piracy, but it can't hurt. Neither did including some stickers as well! This is the first Beck album I own (even if it was a birthday present), but the sixth I have on my PC. Some of that is due to the hit-and-miss nature of whether you love the instruments used and stuff, of course. However, my main CD purchasing principle is if I really dig an album, I have to buy their next album. I did really like Beck's last one, the very cool Latino/Caribbean inspired album Guero, so it's suitable to pick up The Information.

My other principle is that at the year's end, I'll be counting down (at least) my top 10 albums of the year and ensuring I've purchased a copy of each of them. I just like to justify that downloading can be good for the music industry and that I'm putting back in for the rewards I get out of it. And I feel quite rewarded by Monsieur Beck right now.