In the midst the success of “Loser” and the consequent, fervent major label competition to sign Beck in late 1993, he decamped to Olympia, Washington to work on music that would becomeOne Foot In The Grave. Like the release of Stereopathetic Soulmanure near Mellow Gold, there are elements of One Foot In The Grave that expose Beck’s discomfort with pop success and his attempt to retain some bit of his lo-fi, indie roots. Or, if you have a more cynical view of ’90s alt-rock icons and their relationship to mainstream stardom, One Foot is another of the ’93/’94 releases that could scan as Beck’s last round of bids to shore up his indie credibility before signing to the majors. (Not that anyone expected Mellow Gold as an album to become a sensation, or Odelay to follow that, but either way he was still taking a massive step further away from his more outsider beginnings.) A not insignificant fact: One Foot In The Grave was a collaboration with Calvin Johnson, an indie icon for fronting Beat Happening and founding K Records, which would release One Foot in mid-1994. There’s a big difference with One Foot In The Grave, though. Where releasing something like Stereopathetic Soulmanure seemed like a self-conscious emptying of the vault, an attempt to short-circuit his own rising stardom with a bunch of sludgy demos, One Foot In The Grave is actually a very worthwhile entry into the Beck canon. This is one where people might make the contrarian argument that it’s Beck’s finest, and they might not seem too crazy. It’s not radically disassociated from some of what Beck had put out there before — a series of grainy, static-y blues and folk, just more focused stylistically and (comparatively) clearer sonically. But unlike with Golden Feelings and Stereopathetic Soulmanure, the songs aren’t obscured by the type of (lack of) production that starts to come off as obnoxious. One Foot In The Grave is a strong record, lurking there as a pleasant surprise once you’ve dug past the obvious Beck entry points. This is where, already, we get into the territory where an album this good being ranked this low is a testament to the consistent heights of Beck’s career.