¿Que Onda?

This just in from the Department of Where Have I Been for the Past Ten Years:

I've finally discovered Beck.

Since I was a complete musical theater dork in high school who wasn't listening to anything remotely cool or of the era at that point in my life, I missed Odelay when it happened and have consequently spent the greater portion of my late teens and early twenties relatively Beckless. (Except for "Tropicalia," which I fell hard for when Mutations came out. I played it nearly every week on my radio show at WIUS. Good Christ, how I love that song.) I've always known, intellectually, that I would like Beck if I ever took the time to get into his stuff, so I've been happy to accept burned copies of his albums from friends of mine who want to convince me of his greatness. I just stockpiled them in my CD case, waiting for the day when I would feel like making the commitment to him.

Kittens, that day occured last weekend. I don't know what clicked, but all I want to do right now is listen to Beck. I downloaded Guero a day or two ago and it is sooo good. "Missing" will be an easy addition to my end of year CD comp. It's such a joy to listen to an album that's so confidently produced and performed and sequenced. There's no nervousness that there's going to be a clunker hiding somewhere, and there's no stress that I'm going to have to digest something new and undiscovered. It's been discovered, dammit, oh how it has been discovered, and now I just have to sit back and reap the rewards. Hell yes.