Beck: Ranking His Albums From Worst To Best

He's got two turntables and a microphone....and five grammys.

by William Boyd
FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2012 file photo, musician Beck poses for a portrait at his home, in Malibu, Calif. Beck Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and the Electric Light Orchestra are among a new batch of performers added to the bill for Sunday night's Grammy Awar
Katy Winn/AP

Not many artists can mutate and evolve in music while maintaining their core audience, but Beck Hansen is one such artist. Originally lauded in the mid-'90s as the poster boy of the slacker generation, he managed to transcend these confines as well as the musical spectrum because of his insatiable drive to explore music to its very limits. The fact that he also did this with commercial and critical success is unique as increasingly more and more artists fall into either one or the other.

The space bound maestro has just released the first track off of his upcoming, as of yet untitled tenth studio release, the fantastically elastic 'Dreams'. The song is a strong indicator that the album will be a celebration of eclecticism from one of the most versatile artists of this generation. His latest (long overdue) Album of the Year Grammy win for the blissful Morning Phase doesn't appear to be stopping him from hitting party mode again with 'Dreams', always one to shape-shift when the mood takes him.

With each release he soars for a new, undiscovered musical plateau and the only thing to expect with a Beck release is the unexpected. 

Here are his nine very different official studio albums ranked from worst to best.

9. Mutations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCItNZo2sNo
More or less here by default, Mutations is a fine collection of mainly folk-rock acoustic numbers. The album was a change in direction from the sample heavy Odelay, sounding more mature and internal. 

It bathes more in the vintage age of music like the waltzing 'Lazy Flies' and the ballroom, country-blues jam 'Cancelled Check', the sound of a more musically content Beck. What it lacks in musical innovation, it makes up for in seamless genre transitioning and expert songwriting like the exotic flavored, bossa nova dreamland 'Tropicalia' or the middle eastern, sitar drenched 'Nobody's Fault But My Own', highlighting yet again Beck's creative flare. 

There are some missteps in there though. The pleasant but plodding 'Sing It Again' and the somewhat flat tone of 'Dead Melodies' don't quite hit the same creative peaks that songs like 'Bottle Of Blues' or 'Diamond Bollocks' do.

Although a favorite among fans and it's easy to see why, it does lack the song power to compete with some of his very best work.

Hightlights: Nobody's Fault But My Own, Lazy Flies, Tropicalia, Diamond Bollocks

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Contributor

Music Journalism graduate and freelance writer from Northern Ireland, who enjoys scouring the music archives for the best sounds from the past and present. Writer for the awesome publications WhatCulture, Metal Injection, Scribol, The Gamer, and Prefix.