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May 19, 2008

New Beck - "Chemtrails"

thubmnail icon: New Beck - "Chemtrails"

All signs and sources point to Beck dropping his feverishly anticipated Modern Guilt LP in rushed, Raconteurs style. As reported, the album features the inaugural studio partnership between Beck and Danger Mouse, a Cat Power vocal, and according to the Rolling Stone advance listen we posted, it has an "overall 1960s British vibe" with early Pink Floyd in the mix. "Chemtrails" bears out the reference some, BeckMouse keeping it spooky with pitch-bent organs, dryly unaffected bass guitar, vocals in the moan-y register, and powerhouse drumming from Joey Waronker. You can hear 90 seconds of it right now at beck.com by mousing-over the jukebox in the upper-right. Groovy, haunted, all of that. We like it.

UPDATE: Continue the Caribou comparisons with the full song stream, after the jump.

(Thanks, Kyle)

Posted at 4:46 PM
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34 Comments

"early '60s psych"? I don't think there was such a thing...

Posted by: Max at 05/19/08 5:08 PM | Reply
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That would be late 60s psych..

Posted by: rinjonjori in reply to Max's comment at 05/19/08 7:48 PM | Reply
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That was my point. The post was edited without mention. Maybe it was Death Cab...

Posted by: Max in reply to rinjonjori's comment at 05/20/08 12:06 PM | Reply
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OH HELL YES. Sounds so good.

Posted by: fong at 05/19/08 6:01 PM | Reply
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Um, Aphrodite's Child anyone?

Posted by: Pete at 05/19/08 6:47 PM | Reply
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Um, Aphrodite's Child "666" anyone?

Posted by: Pete at 05/19/08 6:50 PM | Reply
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Sounds like kinda nothing Beck has already done before. quelle surprise... i like it very much.

Posted by: Marc at 05/19/08 7:20 PM | Reply
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i love Beck unabashedly.. but this song sounds an awful lot like Caribou. an awful lot..

Posted by: colin at 05/19/08 10:15 PM | Reply
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Go Beck

Posted by: Hip-Hop Music at 05/19/08 10:20 PM | Reply
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Caribou anyone???

Posted by: Kyle at 05/19/08 10:23 PM | Reply
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Wow, I've enjoyed Beck for awhile but really feel like he's been doing a bit too much sound searching on the past few albums- this sounds a LOT like Caribou. I'd hate to write it off as a "hey, this will tide me over until the next Caribou" album...

Posted by: cbo at 05/19/08 10:44 PM | Reply
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Very excited to hear this album, this track sounds AIR-esque, in a good way.

Who the fuck is Caribou? (this question is posed from the future)

Posted by: JAck at 05/19/08 10:49 PM | Reply
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not the biggest fan of back, but certainly diggin' this

Posted by: my name is at 05/20/08 1:26 AM | Reply
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I second or third or whatever the caribou opinion.

Posted by: ggg at 05/20/08 4:25 AM | Reply
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The Caribou comment is starting to sound just like the damn radiohead bitching on every coldplay post. hope this isnt a new thing for the hippsters to complain about.

The song itself is good, im not quite head over heals as I had hopped to be for this single, but its still good.

Posted by: Brian at 05/20/08 6:13 AM | Reply
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love the new sound...yay beck"

Posted by: scaramanga at 05/20/08 9:35 AM | Reply
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Full version of the song is on IMEEM if anyone wants it. The ending is pretty cool.

http://www.imeem.com/beck/music/9NEqqz_5/beck_chemtrails

Posted by: Kyle at 05/20/08 9:50 AM | Reply
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You guys are being a bit harsh to Beck here with the Caribou comparisons. Caribou has just found this sort of sound very recently and Beck had covered Skip Spence (Halo of Gold) when Caribou was still Manitoba. I mention Skip Spence because his influence is strong on this tune and I think it is an influence that Beck was wearing on his sleeve when Manitoba/Caribou was still making boring electronic instrumentals.

Posted by: Cory at 05/20/08 2:34 PM | Reply
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sounds kinda like the beta band to me
which is cool

Posted by: brody at 05/20/08 3:44 PM | Reply
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wi_ngo

Man, the drums sound freaking fantastic on this track. The creepy organ is nice, too.

Posted by: wi_ngo profile link at 05/20/08 4:02 PM | Reply
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Ugh Andorra, as fantastic as it is wasn't the first record to mix electronica and psychedlic music. Beck has always incorporated 60's pop and psychedelic influences into his music. This track sounds nothing like Caribou other then a vague genre connection. Caribou is far more on the electronica side and more synthetic sounding. I'm really digging this track. the record sounds so promising. Glad to see that Beck is continuing to try new things out like he did with The Information rather then trying to remake odelay.

Posted by: Brian at 05/21/08 10:18 AM | Reply
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sounds kind electric soft parade to me.. and yeah.. very much caribou. but it is nice that he is straying from the traditional beck sound..

Posted by: toph. at 05/21/08 11:18 AM | Reply
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I really like it! Beck always continually experiments/collaborates and changes his sound up, and people who liked a few specific older songs of his always complain. But that continual change and evolution is what I admire about him.

Posted by: sfchris at 05/22/08 6:00 PM | Reply
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I really like where Beck is taking his sound. Even though I've been a loyal fan since Odelay, some of his more recent work hasn't left me loving him as much as I used to. After listening to this, I'm very intrigued to see what the rest of this album sounds like.

Posted by: donnieB12 profile link at 05/24/08 3:49 AM | Reply
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Beck rocks! Headbutt!

Posted by: Zidane at 05/24/08 11:13 PM | Reply
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I don't like it.

Posted by: fleshcanoe profile link at 05/25/08 7:27 PM | Reply
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I like the way everybody's comparing to Caribou as if Caribou invented the whole 1960s sunny pop sound.. On top of that, this is a lot darker and creepier than anything from 'Andorra', which was possibly oversaturated with sugary sweetness. I like it more than 95% of the stuff off his last two albums anyway, hoping the new release is consistently this good.

Posted by: Richie at 06/01/08 3:06 PM | Reply
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Sounds an awful lot like "Meddle"-era Pink Floyd with Beck doing his best David Gilmour imitation. Not that that's a bad thing at all. I honestly think this is one of Becks best!

Posted by: JimmyTheFoxx at 06/08/08 6:09 PM | Reply
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i like caribou. they rock.

Posted by: annie momus at 06/10/08 1:59 PM | Reply
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You look to the finger or the heaven, stupids!
Listen to the lyrics! There are chemtrails in heaven. Music is only the vehicule to comunicate. Wake up!!

Posted by: rafapal at 06/11/08 3:47 AM | Reply
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De puta madre; a ver si se entera toda la peña

Posted by: graff at 06/11/08 8:42 AM | Reply
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Great song. Thank Beck for bring the chemtrail Issue up.
YOU ARE BREATHING ETHYLENE DIBROMIDE, NANO-PARTICULATES OF ALUMINUM AND BARIUM AND CATIONIC POLYMER FIBERS WITH UNIDENTIFIED BIOACTIVE MATERIAL. "Biologic components have been reported in airborne samples that include: modified molds, desiccated red blood cells and exotic strains of bacteria." Welcome to the brave new world of toxic barium skies, weather control, mind control and population control through the use of chemtrails modulated with electromagnetic frequencies generated by HAARP. Our health is under attack as evidenced by the skyrocketing rates of chemtrail induced lung cancer, asthma and pulmonary/respiratory problems. Our natural environment and planetary weather systems are under attack resulting in freak lightening strikes, bizarre weather, 20% less sunlight reaching the Earth' surface, the alarming, nearly complete collapse in certain areas of the west coast marine ecosystem and the creation of some of the largest tornadoes and hurricanes on record. Our skies are increasingly hazed over with fake barium/ aluminum particulate, ethylene dibromide chemtrail clouds. Whether in the atmosphere or in the Ocean this added particulate matter is a hazard to the health of every living thing on this planet. My health and the health of my family has already been drastically affected. There is a main-stream media blackout on this subject so the only way to get the word out is by word of mouth.

Posted by: SA at 06/12/08 7:47 PM | Reply
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Best post on this site, SA. Should be printed in every newspaper and magazine around the world. But the chemtrail-loving puppet masters have a lock-down on 'em as you say, so we gotta do what we gotta do. Congrats to Beck for doing HIS part.

Posted by: MM in reply to SA's comment at 07/13/08 7:57 PM | Reply
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First of all, this song is fantastic. Sounds like the Lips were an influence to me.. Who would try to call Beck a rip-off?

And then there's the reason why this song was recorded.

You should all be researching Chemtrails right now, and then going outside to see what these planes are doing to the sky.

Posted by: Ken at 07/22/08 9:57 PM | Reply
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