Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Beck - Wide Open - Non-Album Tracks (2014-2019)

In recent years, Beck has released a couple of studio albums I'm not that fond of. With "Colors" in 2017 and "Hyperspace" in 2019, he went in a modern pop direction. I'm not the only one who isn't a big fan. If you look at the ratings of his albums on rateyourmusic,com, which averages ratings from hundreds of people, those two have the lowest ratings of any of his major label studio albums. 

That said, I'm happy to report that Beck has continued to be his usual delightfully weird self when it comes to non-album tracks from this time period. There isn't that much of the sound from those two albums, although one song here from 2015, "Dreams," did make it on "Colors" in 2017 in a somewhat different version.  The music here runs a wide range, from funky full band to solo acoustic. Often, it seems Beck was in the mood for cover versions, doing "Wah-Wah" (George Harrison), "Love" (John Lennon), "Satellite of Love" (Lou Reed), I'm Waiting for the Man" (Velvet Undergrond), "Can't Help Falling in Love" (Elvis Presley), "Raspberry Beret," and "Take Me with U" (Prince).

Five of the songs are officially unreleased. However, the sound quality is generally very good. A couple of those unreleased songs come from TV show appearances, which means good sound, and on, "I'm Waiting for the Man," is a studio version released on Beck's YouTube page. (I could be wrong, but I think it's from a planned tribute album that never happened.) 

With this album, I'm almost caught up to the present day as I write this in 2021. However, there are almost enough non-album tracks from 2019 until now for another album. I just need about another two songs. So that'll get posted when there's enough material.

Regarding those bonus tracks, those are more cover versions. They're fine versions, but I demoted them to bonus track status due to poor sound quality.

01 Heaven's Ladder (Beck)
02 Wah-Wah (Beck)
03 Love (Beck)
04 Dreams [Radio Edit] (Beck)
05 Satellite of Love (Beck)
06 Wide Open (Chemical Brothers with Beck)
07 Time Wind (M83 with Beck)
08 Raspberry Beret (Beck)
10 Can't Help Falling in Love (Beck)
11 I'm Waiting for the Man (Beck)
12 Take Me with U (Beck)
13 Night Running (Cage the Elephant with Beck)

Don't You Want Me (Beck & Julian Casablancas)
The Man Who Sold the World (Beck with Nirvana)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15127489/BeckH_2014-2019_WideOpn_atse.zip.html

For the cover art photo of Beck, I used a publicity photo from 2014. That had a plain background that I thought was rather boring. I saw a different photo of Beck from 2014 standing on stage in front of a reddish design. I used that design for the background.

3 comments:

  1. I've had some success finding additional old tracks on Youtube from certain channels:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/StrayBlues/videos

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq5v25NA3WY&ab_channel=SteveHanft

    https://www.youtube.com/user/beckmangroup

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeNPgDwEY_1_xJEApSn-3fA/videos

    https://www.youtube.com/c/kcrw/search?query=beck

    https://www.youtube.com/user/audioszsz/videos

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClVj1waio052N_eVHy4x9fg/search?query=beck



    Thanks for all your work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. That's a lot of stuff though. Are there any songs you think I'm missing?

      Delete
  2. It depends on what you like, there are a lot of noise rock tracks I don't personally care for but I do like his more acoustic tracks like

    -Let's Go Moon Some Cars
    -Are U Positive
    -Lawnmower
    -Watchtower Magazine
    -She Was A Beautiful Woman
    -I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore
    -Cardboard Faces (Mmmmmmmmmm) (it really has that many M's)
    -The Way It Seems
    -Winter Lady
    -Somewhere Far Along
    -Today
    -Strange Invitation (Jack-ass acoustic)

    I also prefer the acoustic version of Modern Guilt over the regular version. Beck has such a variety of stuff out there and of varying sound quality that it just depends what you're into.

    Thanks for following up.

    ReplyDelete