"Chemtrails" is a 2008 single by American musician

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

. The song, taken from his eleventh studio album, '' Modern Guilt'', was released digitally on June 22, 2008. The artwork for the single uses a design based on Houndstooth patterning.

Release and reception

"Chemtrails" was premiered by Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1 on May 19, 2008. The song was made available to stream from Beck's official website and his MySpace. The song was available to download on June 22, 2008, or a day later in the United States, as well as a pre-order of ''Modern Guilt''. The song's title refers to the

chemtrail conspiracy theory The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails are "chemtrails" consisting of chemical or biological agents left in the sky by high-flying aircraft, sprayed for nefarious purposes undisclosed to t ...

, as do the lyrics: "I can't believe/What we've seen outside/You and me/Watching the jets go by". The critical reception for "Chemtrails" was highly positive. Kitty Empire of '' The Observer'' compared the "beautiful" song to a clash between The Beatles and My Bloody Valentine. USA Today featured the song on its weekly playlist, complimenting Beck's "eerie falsetto over slow-building industrialized Radiohead-like ambience." ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' said that "Beck's falsetto singing rides along a bouncing bassline and crashing drums, with Danger Mouse's trademark production touches filing icthe crannies." Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal called it "the record's best psych-rock showing" and the song featured "a wicked drum exhibition" The song was described as "trippy" by

MTV News MTV News is the news production division of MTV. The service is available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network. In February 2016, MTV Networks confirmed it would refresh the MTV News brand in 2016, to compete with the likes ...

. "Chemtrails" received high praise for "its woozy textures ... with Beck's distracted vocal and a busy drum track complementing each other perfectly." James Lawrenson, writing for ClickMusic, said the song was "like a more electrified '' Sea Change'', ambient and slightly sombre, but beautiful nonetheless." The review described the song's "synth washes and sparse instrumentation" as creating "an airy, atmospheric feel." As promotion for the album, limited edition copies of a "Chemtrails" 7" were distributed to independent record stores and were given to customers upon purchase of the album. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

is a song entitled "Vampire Voltage No. 6". Copies made in the UK were pressed on glow-in-the-dark white vinyl, while copies made for the US were pressed on standard black vinyl. In Italy, this song is used as the theme song to ''L'era glaciale'' ("The Ice Age", not to be confused with the film '' Ice Age''), a talk show hosted by Italian TV personality Daria Bignardi on Rai 2, which was aired between 20 March and 4 December 2009. "Chemtrails" was likely influenced by Aphrodite's Child's song The Four Horsemen, which has a similar structure,

Track listing

:;Digital download # "Chemtrails" – 4:39 :;7" # "Chemtrails" – 4:39 # "Vampire Voltage No. 6" – 2:19

Personnel

– vocals * Greg Kurstin –

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

, piano * Joey Waronker –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Jason Falkner –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, electric guitar * David Campbell – string arrangement

References

External links

Official Beck website
{{authority control 2008 singles Beck songs Song recordings produced by Danger Mouse (musician) DGC Records singles Songs written by Beck 2008 songs