Nate picked it (and is going through a breakup as we record this), Brandon was the engineer on a week of rehearsals with this exact band years ago, and we both arrived at the same hot take: Sea Change is not actually a stripped-down album.
This week on Playback: Beck — Sea Change (2002). The breakup record. The eighth Beck album. The one where the goofy Devil's Haircut rapping-in-Spanish funk guy walks into Ocean Way with Nigel Godrich and walks out with a slow, deep-voiced, string-drenched masterpiece. Recorded on the legendary Dalcon console. Mixed with no automation, all hands on the desk. And — this is the part nobody talks about — made by a guy who was ALSO simultaneously starting records with Dan the Automator and probably Guero and The Information at the same time.
What we get into:
- Sad Beck vs Funk Beck — and the fact that he was making both at once
- Why Sea Change isn't "stripped down" — it's secretly maximalist
- The Dalcon Feud: Beck, Nigel Godrich and Jon Brion all tried to buy the Ocean Way console, and only one of them got it
- Brandon's week in the studio with the band before this episode was ever a podcast
- Closer to Neil Young's Harvest than to Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks
- The "all hands" mix technique — three or four people on the console, mixed as a performance
- Paper Tiger as a full-on Serge Gainsbourg / Melody Nelson sound-alike (and the confession that Nate may have oversold this)
- Joey Waronker's pocket, James Gadson's funk pedigree, Smokey Hormel (yes, that Hormel) and Roger Manning Jr. (yes, that Jellyfish)
- The George Harrison / All Things Must Pass guitar trick hiding all over Sea Change
- Favorite vs Best vs Standout — The Golden Age, Lost Cause, Guess I'm Doing Fine are all so good none of us could pick clean
- Why Paper Tiger as track 2 is the wrong move
- Brandon's hot take: does post-Sea Change Beck dip a toe into the Eddie Vedder / Layne Staley / Scott Stapp yarl-voice pool?
- Quote Corner: three Beck quotes that change what you think this album actually means
Tell us your Favorite vs. Best Sea Change song — comment on the YouTube version of this episode or email blackmarketreggae@gmail.com.
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Playback playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2bglGuNFbZwJ7SsGU-QbeBero8j7p7jn
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