Mutations Cary NC

Mutations

Beck

DGC Records, 1998

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/25/1999

Success can be a bitch. And there's no better way to ward offthose pesky bandwagon jumping fans than than to release somethingthat can send those fans back to clamoring for the latest Bush orN'Sync release. Nirvana did it (helllllo Incesticide or In Utero), Faith No More did it ( Angel Dust) and to a certain extent, Nine Inch Nails did it( Broken).

The problem is, should an artist risk their creative future justto piss off some fans? A point can be made that all the formeralbums listed could have been genuine artistic statements, butthere was some aching in those releases to weed out the casualfans.

Beck fits right into this artistic dilemma. Mellow Gold did bring in some cashola, but Odelay sent Beck into icon status. Any fan who has scrappedup enough cash to get some of his more experimental b-side releaseswill vouch that the guy can just be plain weird sometimes. So, in1998, Beck released Mutations, a not-exactly b-sides collection, but definitelynot a follow-up to Odelay.

Like an anti-social friend or a hip, but weird uncle, Mutations is more than a tad off-setting at first. But themore times you listen to Mutations, the more you are rewarded. The weird, very '60spsychedelic groove of "Lazy Flies" and "O Maria" are the furthestthing from anything off of Odelay.