Starting with one of the greatest opening tracks ever, “Loser” sets the tone for an album that spans genres and breaks with the convention of what funk, hip-hop, country, blues and folk music can be. “A giant dildo crushing the sun?” Okay, Beck’s lyrics can be a little out there, but the sense of out-there-ness is reigned in by his down home attitude. He can swing from Rolling Stones bravado to blues/folk finger-plucked, mush-mouthed dirges. This was back in the day when he jumped around with a leaf blower on stage, freaked out and threw a phone on 120 Minutes and tried his damnedest to be the hardest working freak in show business, but we all saw through the goofy antics to the true artist underneath it all. While he may have defined a generation of “slackers” with this album, he fooled them all with his ironic performance art. This will be looked back on as a classic in the years to come. You’ll see, mutherfuker (sorry, it’s the title of track 11).
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