As you've probably heard by now, Beck—who's been in something of a semi-resurgence this past year, producing and/or writing for the likes of Pink, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Thurston Moore and Childish Gambino while making sporadic stage appearances and releasing a pair of new tunes on Jack White's Blue Series vinyl label—will finally follow-up his Danger Mouse-produced 2008 album Modern Guilt with his most "out there" experiment yet: releasing 20 unrecorded new songs on sheet music (i.e. Ludwig Van Beethoven style) in collaboration with McSweeney's. Each song will be printed along with exclusive new artwork, with all 20 songs compiled in one hardcover bound Beck Hansen's Song Reader collection, to be released this December.
| Earlier: Want To Hear Beck's New Album? Play It Your Own Damn Self |
Now, there is any number of ways to approach, contextualize, analyze and ultimately form an opinion about Beck's new project. On the one hand, it's just the latest in a long line of innovative ideas from one of the few "working" (more or less) artists today still willing and able to capably put them into action. On the other hand, it spares Beck the pressure of taking blame/credit for how "good" the songs may or may not be. Who's to say if this is or isn't the next Odelay or Sea Change if the only renditions we ever hear are from YouTube novices and talented but decidedly un-Beck-like semi-professionals… the best of which McSweeney's will feature on their official site.
Releasing unrecorded new music on sheet music is both the most postured, old school throwback rock 'n' roll move since Jack White first said "thanks, but no thanks" to Pro Tools and the most progressively modern release schemata we've seen in ages… in many ways, the logical next step after the pay-what-you want, Kickstarter-fueled, democratized world of artist-on-listener-on-artist interaction. It's the logical bi-product of a post-Napster, post-file sharing, post-Spotify decade in which music… not just the electronic data buzzing inside our iPhones and car stereos, but the guts, the real heart and soul that went out of someone's mouth and into a microphone… has been devalued to the point of travesty. If our first reaction is to balk, to grind our teeth in frustration… it's because we've long since forgotten exactly how much work goes into the music (well, most of the music) we consume so much air around us. Music is the universal language, but it's also the most personal, uniquely specific art form we have. You can't make Beck music. I can't make Beck music. Only Beck can make Beck music. He's invited us to try, though.
Then again, Beck's intentions may not be nearly that cynical. At this point in his career, what's he got to prove to us hypercritical bastards, right? He's a songwriter. He's written 20 songs because, well, that's what he does. Why go through the whole arranging, recording, mixing, remixing, editing, packaging, promoting cycle for the umpteenth time when there's endless opportunity to try something different? Something both new and really, really old. I mean, let's face it—we've got really lazy when it comes to music. We bitch and moan that Spotify doesn't have The Beatles when, just a century-plus or so ago, the only way to experience music was to pick up a f—king instrument, learn to play it or hunt down someone who could. Without Google. Since when did complacence become a necessary accomplice to creativity?
We might never get to hear Beck's new songs out of his own mouth. But so what? What did Beck ever really owe us in the first place? What does he owe us now? Why does Axl Rose have to show up in Cleveland when the world says he has to and play with people he doesn't want to? Is there some magic number of people dying for a new Justin Timberlake album that, once surpassed, cosmically requires him to just drop what he's doing and record another "Sexy Back"? So what if you can't play the piano? Who cares if you don't know your treble from your bass clef, your quarter notes from your half steps? Figure it out! Do some work! Don't just let another album go through your ears and then slide out of your mouth via some tossed off, half-baked, inconsequential blurb. Grapple with art. Fight with it. Challenge yourself with it, alter your way of thinking about it. Hell, find some people who can read music and invent your own damn instrument to accompany them with. Dream big. Think outside the box. Beck always has. He might be yanking our chains a little bit… but he's also showing us the way a little bit, too. A piacere, kids. Rock on.
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