eMusic Review 0
If Odelay was Beck's thrilling ego laid bare, and Mutations the critical, considered superego, then Midnite Vultures was the id run rampant. Inspired by Prince and James Brown, mostly, this folk bum-cum-alt-dum-dum somehow morphed into a kidding-but-not-really sex bomb, rapping about "Sexx Laws," arranging horn sections with his dad, David Campbell, to make Stax sidemen blush, and mingling with "Hollywood Freaks" like some pimp-strutting daddy-o. Midnite Vultures is a preposterous album in all ways, goofily conceived and performed, but so much damn fun, it's hard to understand why it never quite connected with a mass audience. Among fans, it's a massive favorite and it ought to be. Only Beck could imagine pairing Johnny Marr's winding, magisterial guitar playing with funk-raps, and yet here they are. All the jokes are good ones, like the manic "He my doooog!!!!" shoutout at the outset of "Hollywood Freaks" or the whirling dervish intro to "Milk & Honey" (I mean, the guy had the stones to name a velvet bedroom come-on "Milk & Honey"). But nothing is as clever, silly, or straight-faced as "Debra," the slow jam ode that is a perfect parody of Prince's "Raspberry Beret" and also a genuinely feeling expression… read more »
