There's no way I 'm smart or lucky enough to have predicted Beck's long-lasting critical and popular success when I first heard "Loser" back in 1994. I have no doubt that Beck himself knew all along, as he's been at least a couple steps ahead of the rest of us the whole time. And so in 2006 we're lucky to get his tenth album, The Information.(Wow, another tenth album in my Top Ten...I feel dizzy.)
Beck's always had a delightful sort of musical schizophrenia. His albums tend to ricochet from genre to genre; more or less sticking to one vibe per release and then taking a hard left turn for the follow-up, rinse and repeat. This one though, this one he somehow managed to bring it all together in one place. Apparently this album was started before Guero but finished afterwards. You can certainly hear signs of that in the attention to detail throughout, a quality no doubt at least partially attributable to the album's producer and co-conspirator Nigel Godrich.
While I'd stop short of calling this a more "mature" Beck – because the quirky goofiness is all still here, just better focused – this is definitely a guy at the height of his game, taking his fun very seriously. There are recurring themes both musical and lyrical; hints that The Information might even be a concept album concerned with the Information Age and its discontents. Whatever it's intended to be, the end result is fun, funky, inventive and thoughtful all without tripping over itself. While it might not be obvious at first listen, this might just be the best thing he's ever done.
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