Beck

Odelay, released in 1996, makes a useful starting point. Working with the Dust Brothers, Beck built songs in which beats, guitars and fragments of older musical languages seem to arrive from different directions. The joins give the record much of its character. A rough edge can become a hook, and a throwaway vocal phrase can turn out to hold the whole arrangement together.

The album’s confidence lies in its pacing. It can be dense without feeling immobile, moving from one texture to another while preserving the physical pull of the rhythm. The apparent casualness is deceptive: the songs have shapes, even when the sound around them seems determined to wander.

Sea Change in 2002 removes much of that busy surface. Acoustic instruments, strings and a more exposed vocal give the writing a different emotional scale. The listener has fewer distractions, so a small change in tone can carry the weight that a whole production turn might carry elsewhere.

Guero in 2005 brought Beck back together with the Dust Brothers and returned to a more rhythmic, layered sound. “E-Pro” and “Girl” offer quick entrances, but the three albums are especially revealing in conversation. Odelay shows the restless assembler, Sea Change the singer willing to leave a line unprotected, and Guero the musician returning to familiar tools with a different history behind him. There is no need to choose one as the authentic Beck. The movement between them is part of the appeal.