The Information

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This article is about the Beck album. For the Martis Amis novel, see The Information (novel). For other uses, see Information (disambiguation).
The Information
The Information cover
Studio album by Beck
Released October 3, 2006
Recorded Winter 2003 – Spring 2006
Genre Alternative
Length 61:33
Label Interscope
Producer Nigel Godrich
Professional reviews
Beck chronology
Guerolito
(2005)		 The Information
(2006)		 Modern Guilt
(2008)

The Information is the seventh major-label studio album by Beck, released in October 2006. It was produced and mixed by longtime Beck collaborator Nigel Godrich. Recording began in 2003 concurrently with Guero, but the album was not completed until 2006. Rolling Stone magazine has named it the 24th best album of 2006, while Spin magazine ranked it number 10 on their 40 Best Albums of 2006.

Contents

[edit] Release history

Before its release, Beck said the album was not a "stripped down" record, in contrast with his previous Godrich collaborations Mutations and Sea Change.[1] According to Beck, "Nigel [Godrich] said he wanted to do a hip-hop record" before they began work on the album. "And in a way it is, and in a way it isn't. It has hip-hop songs, and my previous work with him was Mutations and Sea Change, these sort of introspective records, and so this new one is sort of bringing those two worlds together."[2]

In an interview with the BBC,[3] Beck said the album had been "painful" to make:

“ It started out painless, and ended up being painful. It's as if we made the album once, and we made it again, and we made it a third time. We started the record in 2003, and we got together annually, the producer [Nigel Godrich] and I. We combed over everything, and got rid of the things we were tired of, the things that seemed trite. ”

The first single in North America was "Nausea," which officially went to radio on September 5, 2006.[4] The first single in the UK was "Cellphone's Dead", with an official video directed by Michel Gondry;[5] the track samples Primal Scream's hit single "Loaded" quite prominently. "Think I'm In Love" went to US radio as the second and final single and became a Modern Rock and Triple A radio hit, garnering renewed interest in The Information.

The album reached #7 on the US's Billboard 200, #6 in Canada and #31 on Australia's ARIA Chart. As of June 2008, The Information has sold 432,000 units in the United States.[6]

On February 27, 2007, a "deluxe version" of the album was released. It contained the original album plus three songs only available internationally, six remixes, a complete printing of the lyrics, a DVD with all the studio-released videos plus bonus non-studio-released videos of "Nausea" and "Cellphone's Dead," and four different sticker sheets for the album cover.

[edit] Music videos

Some copies of the album include a bonus DVD of specially filmed music videos, one for each track on the record.[1] In the Wired interview[7], Beck explained the making of these videos, which would also appear on video-sharing site YouTube:

“ We filmed a series of very low-budget, homemade videos for all the songs on the record. We got a bunch of cameras and a $100 video mixer off eBay and shot 15 silly, impromptu videos against a green screen. We even invited our friends and family into the studio to be a part of the action — my mother-in-law did the lighting, and my son and nieces and nephews are running around acting crazy. It was just a complete free-for-all, done on the fly. We're putting all the videos together right now with the idea of having a visual version of the record that we'll put on the Internet. I'm totally curious to see how the videos will add to the experience of listening to the album. Or maybe they'll actually detract from the experience. That would be funny. ”

[edit] Artwork

The "blank canvas" of Beck's 2006 album The Information displayed here with all four different sheets of decals.
The "blank canvas" of Beck's 2006 album The Information displayed here with all four different sheets of decals.

The album was issued with a blank sleeve and booklet and one of four different sheets of stickers for fans to make their own album art. Beck explained to Wired magazine[7] he wanted no two copies of the CD cover to be the same: "The artwork is going to be customizable. The idea is to provide something that calls for interactivity." However, because the unique album art concept was seen as a gimmick to bolster retail sales, The Information was deemed ineligible to enter the UK Albums Chart.[8]

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Beck, except where noted.

  1. "Elevator Music" – 3:38
  2. "Think I'm in Love" – 3:20
  3. "Cellphone's Dead" – 4:46
  4. "Strange Apparition" – 3:48
  5. "Soldier Jane" (Beck, Nigel Godrich) – 3:59
  6. "Nausea" – 2:55
  7. "New Round" – 3:26
  8. "Dark Star" – 3:45
  9. "We Dance Alone" – 3:57
  10. "No Complaints" – 3:00
  11. "1000BPM" – 2:32
  12. "Motorcade" (Beck, Godrich) – 4:15
  13. "The Information" – 3:46
  14. "Movie Theme" (Beck, Godrich) – 3:53
  15. "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton" (Beck, Godrich) – 10:36
Bonus tracks
  1. "Inside Out" (Australia/Japan/UK bonus track) – 3:43
  2. "This Girl That I Know" (Japan/UK bonus track) – 2:43
  3. "O Menina" (Japan bonus track) – 2:09

[edit] Deluxe version

[edit] Disc one

  1. "Elevator Music" – 3:38
  2. "Think I'm in Love" – 3:20
  3. "Cellphone's Dead" – 4:46
  4. "Strange Apparition" – 3:48
  5. "Soldier Jane" – 3:59
  6. "Nausea" – 2:54
  7. "Dark Star" – 3:45
  8. "Movie Theme" – 3:53
  9. "We Dance Alone" – 3:57
  10. "No Complaints" – 3:00
  11. "1000BPM" – 2:30
  12. "Motorcade" – 4:15
  13. "The Information" – 3:46
  14. "New Round" – 3:26
  15. "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton" – 10:36
  16. "Inside Out" - 3:43
  17. "This Girl That I Know" - 2:43
  18. "O Menina" - 2:09

[edit] Disc two

  1. "Cellphone's Dead" (Ellen Allien remix) - 5:37
  2. "Nausea" (Bumblebeez remix) - 2:28
  3. "Dark Star" (David Andrew Sitek remix) - 4:08
  4. "Nausea" (The Chap remix) - 3:55
  5. "Cellphone's Dead" (Jamie Lidell Limited Minutes remix) - 4:32
  6. "Cellphone's Dead" (Ricardo Villalobos remix) - 14:38

[edit] CD/DVD Version

There is also a third version of the album containing the original version of the album plus a 2nd disc with said home-made music videos of all of the album's songs by Beck.[1]

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Certifications

Country Certification Sales/shipments
Canada Gold[9] 50,000

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Beck reveals all about new album". NME. Retrieved on 2006-08-08.
  2. ^ James Montgomery. "Beck Giving Fans Sticky Fingers With Quasi-Hip-Hop Album", MTV News, June 26, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-09. 
  3. ^ "Beck's 'Painful' Album", BBC, October 2, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-16. 
  4. ^ "Beck Reveals More Information". FMQB. Retrieved on 2006-08-15.
  5. ^ "Beck – Cellphone's Dead". director-file.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-09.
  6. ^ Cohen, Jonathan. "Beck Sets Date, Track List For 'Modern Guilt'". Billboard. June 12, 2008.
  7. ^ a b Eric Steur. "The Infinite Album" (Interview), 14.09, Wired, September 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-16. 
  8. ^ "New Beck Album Denied UK Chart Eligibility", Billboard.biz. Retrieved on 2006-10-04. 
  9. ^ CRIA Gold & Platinum certifications for October 2006. Retrieved July 25, 2007.

[edit] External links

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Beck
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Other albums
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See also