Beck's "Modern Guilt" Video Preview

nik.mercer — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:53:44 -0700

In this writer's humble opinion, Beck should've never teamed up with Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Hipster Timbaland). Beck, once the most notorious mad scientist of sound, copped out by bringing Danger Mouse on board. Once, long ago, the A.D.D. innovator worked with the Dust Brothers... once, he wrote "novelty songs" like "Loser" and "Devil's Haircut," not because he was trying to be weird, but because he just happened to be the strangest dude around... once, he was pulling in Grammy nominations for one of the fringiest LP's of the 1990s (Odelay)... once he was showing up friggin' Prince with jams like "Debra"... but those days seem to have passed us all by, and now the California native is shacked up with Mr. Mouse, working on the white man's rendition of "Crazy."

But let's not write Modern Guilt off completely. The LP's out on July 8 and we just unearthed this rather impressive YouTube sampler video. The clip sort of channels off-kilter 1960s New Wave films, psychedelic home videos, an old Vogue fashion shoot, and, of course, Beck's timeless cool. That's one thing he'll never lose: his cool. Good, bad, mediocre albums aside, Beck shall always be the raddest rocker around.