''Midnite Vultures'' is the seventh studio album 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 ...
, released on November 23, 1999 by
DGC Records
DGC Records (an initialism for the David Geffen Company) was an American record label that operated as a division of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group.
History
DGC Records was launched in 1990 as a subsi ...
. While similar to most of Beck's previous albums in its exploration of widely varying styles, it did not achieve the same blockbuster success as his breakthrough 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 ...
'', but was still critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The album's sound marked a compositional departure from the
psychedelic
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...
hip hop, alternative rock, and sample-based music in his previous albums towards a
funk rock
Funk rock is a fusion genre that mixes elements of funk and rock. James Brown and others declared that Little Richard and his mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, were the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat, with a biographer sta ...
and
R&B style.
Recording
Working titles for the album included ''Zatyricon'' (the name of a song released in 2000 as a
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 ...
on the "
Nicotine & Gravy" single and later included on the
''Beck'' EP) and ''I Can Smell the V.D. in the Club Tonight'' (a line from "Milk & Honey").
Influences
Several songs were directly inspired by other songs: "Get Real Paid" features a spiraling sequencer motif reminiscent of
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
's "Home Computer"; a synth breakdown in "Milk & Honey" echoes a similar riff in
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole (not to be confused with Kid Creole), Keef Cowboy, S ...
's "
The Message"; "Beautiful Way" came about after listening to
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise w ...
's "Countess from Hong Kong"; and "
Debra
Debra is a feminine given name.
Debra may refer to:
People
* Debra Adelaide (born 1958), Australian writer
* Debra Allbery (born 1957), American poet
* Debra R. Anderson (1949-2022), American politician
* Debra Austin (born 1955), American ba ...
" was inspired by both
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
's song "
Adore" and the
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
song "Win".
Release
''Midnite Vultures'' reached number 34 in the US, where it went
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
, and also hit number 19 in the UK. As of July 2008, ''Midnite Vultures'' has sold 743,000 copies in the United States.
The first promotional shows for the album came in late 1999, including a headlining performance at the first
Coachella Coachella may refer to:
* Coachella, California
* Coachella Canal, in California
* Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California
* "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey
See also
* Coachell ...
festival on October 9th alongside
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat genre t ...
,
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerfor ...
and
Tool
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
.
Beck had also appeared on the
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
episode (dated December 4th),
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014.
The fourth incarnation of the ...
, and the
VH1! Fashion Show.
During the following year
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 ...
continued to tour, playing in the U.S., Japan, and at large European festivals such as Bizarre Festival,
Reading and Leeds Festival
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Fes ...
and more, playing about 80 shows from January '00 until September '00. The "Vultures" tour was also the last tour featuring
DJ Swamp
Ronald K. Keys Jr. aka DJ Swamp is an American hip hop DJ, turntablist, producer and vocalist. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He currently resides in Los Angeles, United States. In 1996, he won the title of US DMC Champion, hi ...
as a part of Beck's touring band, whom he had been a part of since 1997.
The first 500,000 copies came in a
digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
A ...
.
A thirty-second segment of "Beautiful Way" has been bundled with
Windows ME
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...
as a demo song for
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...
7, under the name "beck.
asf
ASF may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Alabama Shakespeare Festival, a drama festival
* ''Asimov's Science Fiction'', a U.S.-based English-language science fiction magazine containing SF stories
Science and technology
Biological
* A ...
". The song showcased Media Player's Internet integration by displaying a clickable image link.
Critical reception
''Midnite Vultures'' was praised by most critics, and the album holds a score of 83 at
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
[ ]Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' remarked that on ''Midnite Vultures'', Beck "plays the insider, riding the executive plane through the good life with every need fulfilled." Richard Cromelin of the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote that he gives the album "a cinematic richness, depth and detail with an array of mutations and surprises, from banjo hoedown to electronic effects". The ''NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' felt that the album, while narrower in scope than ''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 ...
'', is "more immediate in impact".
'' Q'' praised ''Midnite Vultures'' as an often "musically dazzling" album, while noting that "the one criticism that can be still levelled at Beck is that his songs remain strangely soulless, failing to ever really grip the emotions or stir the soul." In a mixed review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
of AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
states that while the album's initial songs are "tight, catchy, and memorable, the production dense", the "awkward, misguided shift in tone" of "Hollywood Freaks" gives the rest of the album the impression that "for all the ingenuity, it's just a hipster joke." Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
of ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' felt that "his problem isn't that he tries to be funny, but that his jokes are as forced as his horn charts", later giving it a one-star honorable mention rating and remarking that it "does eventually get funky, if anybody cares but me."
''Midnite Vultures'' was nominated in 2001 for Album of the Year at the 43rd Grammy Awards.
In 2006, ''Midnite Vultures'' was named the 50th "Worst Album Ever" by '' Q''. Conversely, in 2013, ''NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' ranked the album at number 307 in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indust ...
.
Track listing
Personnel
*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 ...
– vocals, production; keyboards (tracks 1, 6, 7, 10), guitar (tracks 2, 6, 7, 9, 10), synthesizer (track 2, 4, 8), piano (track 2), vocoder (track 3, 8), choir vocals (track 4), bass synthesizer (track 5), backing vocals (tracks 6, 7, 10), handclaps (track 6), marimbas (track 7), harmonica (tracks 7, 9), acoustic guitar (track 8), bass (track 9), programming (tracks 1-4, 6-8, 10), mixing (tracks 1-6, 8), horn arrangements (tracks 1, 3, 6)
*Justin Meldal-Johnsen
Justin Meldal-Johnsen (born March 26, 1970) is an American musician, record producer, songwriter and musical director. He is best known for his work with artists such as Beck, Paramore, Nine Inch Nails, M83, Air, and St. Vincent.
Meldal-Johns ...
– bass (tracks 1-8, 10), synthesizer (track 2), backing vocals (track 3), shaker (track 3), percussion (tracks 6, 7), handclaps (track 6), guitar (track 8), noise (10), upright bass (track 11)
*Roger Joseph Manning Jr.
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (born May 27, 1966) is an American keyboardist, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the bands Jellyfish, the Moog Cookbook, and Imperial Drag. He has also spent several years as a member of Beck's backing band, contri ...
– synthesizer (tracks 1-8, 10), piano (tracks 1, 2, 8, 10), tambourine (tracks 1, 9, 10), shaker (tracks 1, 10), clavinet (tracks 2, 7, 8), vocoder (track 3, 8), backing vocals (track 3, 10), choir vocals (track 4), organ (track 6, 11), percussion (tracks 6, 7), handclaps (track 6), acoustic guitar (track 7), guitar (track 8), electronic drums (track 8), keyboards (track 9), Fender Rhodes electric piano (track 11)
*Smokey Hormel
Smokey Hormel (born circa 1959)Cohen (2017) quotes Hormel as saying he was "4 or 5 ears old when "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles was "a big hit on the radio"; the song was released in America in December 1963. is an American guitarist ...
– guitar (tracks 1, 3, 8, 11)
*Joey Waronker
Jon Joseph Waronker (born May 20, 1969) is an American drummer and music producer. He is best known as a regular drummer of both Beck and R.E.M., and as member of the experimental rock bands Atoms for Peace and Ultraísta.
Background
Waronker w ...
– drums (tracks 3, 7, 8, 10, 11), percussion (track 10)
* David Arthur Brown – tenor sax (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6)
*Jon Birdsong – trumpet (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6)
*David Ralicke – trombone (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6)
*Tony Hoffer
Tony Hoffer is an American record producer, songwriter, and music mixer.
Career
Hoffer is credited for his work on multiple platinum-selling albums including The Kooks, The Thrills, Beck, Supergrass, Turin Brakes and Air. His records have bee ...
– co-production (tracks 3, 4, 8, 10), mixing (tracks 3, 4, 8, 10), programming (tracks 3, 4, 5, 8, 10), sound design (4, 10), engineering (track 3, 4, 8, 10), guitar (track 3, 8)
* David Campbell – viola (track 2), string arrangements (track 2), string conductor (track 2)
*Larry Corbett – cello (track 2)
*Joel Derouin – violin (track 2)
*Brian Gardner – mastering
*Bernie Grundman – mastering
*Greg Leisz
Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar.
Biography
Leisz grew up in the garage band cu ...
– pedal steel (track 9)
*Jay Dee Maness – pedal steel (tracks 1, 9)
*Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher, 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has since performed with numerous ...
– guitar (track 8)
*Michael Patterson Michael Patterson may refer to:
*Michael Patterson (animator), American director and animator, creator of MC Skat Kat
*Michael Patterson (English footballer) (1905 – after 1931)
*Michael Patterson (Australian footballer) (1941–2002), AFL player
...
– mixing (tracks 1-6, 8, 11)
*Herb Pedersen
Herbert Joseph Pedersen (born April 27, 1944 in Berkeley, California) is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past fifty years including Country music, country, ...
– banjo (tracks 1, 2)
*Fernando Pullum – horn (track 11)
*Joe Turano – horn (track 11), backing vocals (track 11)
*Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller (born August 26, 1950) is an American vocalist, songwriter, and record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He was active as a solo artist and session musician, but is perhaps best known for his work as a touring back- ...
– backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
*Beth Orton
Elizabeth Caroline Orton (born 14 December 1970) is an English musician, known for her "folktronica" sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica. She was initially recognised for her collaborations with William Orbit, Andrew Weatherall, ...
– backing vocals (track 9)
*Chris Bellman – mastering
*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 o ...
– production (tracks 5, 11), scratching (track 5), programming (track 5), engineering (track 5)
*Robert Carranza
Robert Carranza is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer.
Selected discography
*2017 – Heaven Upside Down – Marilyn Manson
*2016 – ''Dont Go She Gone'' – ''Mangchi''
*2015 – ''The Pale Emperor'' – Marilyn Man ...
– string engineer (track 2)
*Steve Baxter – horn (track 11), backing vocals (track 11)
*Steve Mixdorf – second engineer
*Valerie Pinkston – backing vocals (1, 2, 4, 5)
*Mickey Petralia
Mickey Petralia is an American producer, engineer, and mixer. Petralia produced all of the music on ''Flight of the Conchords''.
Discography
*2014 - ''Muppets Most Wanted: Original Soundtrack''
*2011 - ''The Muppets: Original Soundtrack''
*200 ...
– programming (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9), production (1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9), engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4, 7, 9), mixing (track 1, 2, 6-10)
*Shauna O'Brien – project manager
*DJ Swamp
Ronald K. Keys Jr. aka DJ Swamp is an American hip hop DJ, turntablist, producer and vocalist. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He currently resides in Los Angeles, United States. In 1996, he won the title of US DMC Champion, hi ...
– scratching (track 2)
*Eve Butler – violin (track 2)
*Charlie Gross – photography
*Arroyo Bombers – gang chorus (track 5)
*Arroyo Tabernacle Men's Chorale – choir (track 6)
*Derek Carlson – second engineer
* Eye – artwork, art direction, design, collage
*Gimbop – layout direction
*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 ...
– collage
*SA
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
1999 albums
Beck albums
Albums arranged by David Campbell (composer)
Albums produced by Tony Hoffer
DGC Records albums
Albums produced by the Dust Brothers
Microsoft Windows sample music
Albums produced by Beck
Albums produced by Mickey Petralia