"Deadweight" is a single by American musician Beck, released as a single from the soundtrack to the 1997 romantic

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film ''

A Life Less Ordinary ''A Life Less Ordinary'' is a 1997 romantic black comedy film directed by Danny Boyle, written by John Hodge, and starring Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm and Dan Hedaya. The plot follows two angels (Hunte ...

''. The song was nominated for Best Song from a Movie at the

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but lost to

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's "

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". The song can also be found on the deluxe version of Beck's fifth studio album, ''

Odelay ''Odelay'' is the fifth studio album by American musician Beck, released on June 18, 1996, by DGC Records. The album featured several successful singles, including " Where It's At", " Devils Haircut", and " The New Pollution", and peaked at numbe ...

'' (1996).

Background

Beck recorded "Deadweight" with the

Dust Brothers The Dust Brothers are a pair of songwriters and producers consisting of E.Z. Mike ( Michael Simpson) and King Gizmo ( John King). They are famous for the sample-based music they produced in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work on ...

between ''

'' and '' Mutations''. It was released on the soundtrack to ''A Life Less Ordinary'' at the end of 1997. In contrast with the buoyant, lively melody, Beck adds his own Gram Parsons-style hard-luck lyrics about

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, and loneliness. Beck has mentioned that this song was a part of his "Brazilian trilogy", alongside " Tropicalia" and " Missing". Unlike "Tropicalia", which is a bossa nova song, "Deadweight" uses its Brazilian influence more as part of a larger funky brew. As Beck said in ''

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'', "I'm trying to get to a place where this merging of styles is so fluent and natural that you don't notice the different snippets, a musical consciousness where there's no preconceived ideas". An edited version without the synthesizer noise breakdown coda was also put out as a single.

Structure

Beck recorded most of the song by himself, playing bass, keyboards, drum machine, and all the guitars; though the scratching is uncredited, it was most likely one of the Dust Brothers, who produced the track.

"Erase the Sun" and "SA-5"

The remaining two tracks on the single—"Erase the Sun" and "SA-5"—provide direct links to ''Mutations'' with lyrical fragments that would end up almost word-for-word in future songs.

Music video

The song's music video was directed by

Michel Gondry Michel Gondry (; born 8 May 1963) is a French filmmaker noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers ...

. It features Beck—who lives in a paradoxical world—working at a desk on the beach, then going on holiday to an office. He eventually ends up at a movie theatre showing ''A Life Less Ordinary''. The video is intercut with scenes from the movie.

Track listing

# "Deadweight" (edit) - 4:07 # "Erase the Sun" - 3:16 # "SA-5" - 1:52

Personnel

* Beck Hansen – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, organ, mellotron, synthesizer, piano, production * The Dust Brothers – turntables, drum machine, production

Charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deadweight (Song) 1997 singles 1997 songs Beck songs Geffen Records singles London Records singles Music videos directed by Michel Gondry Song recordings produced by Dust Brothers Songs written by Beck Songs written for films