At first glance, it seems like the teaming of Beck and Danger Mouse is a perfect pairing of postmodern pranksters, as neither musician has shaken the first impression he's made: for most, Beck is still seen as that ironic Loser, trawling through pop culture's junk heap, while Danger Mouse is the maverick of The Grey Album, the mash-up of the Beatles and Jay-Z that reads like a joke but doesn't play like one.
Close listening to either man's body of work easily dispels these notions, as Beck has spent as much time mining the murky melancholia of Mutations as he has crafting neon freakouts like Midnite Vultures.
He's made a career bouncing from one extreme to the other, occasionally revisiting the cut 'n' paste collage that would have seemed like a natural fit for the sample-centric Danger Mouse, but when he partnered with Danger Mouse in 2008, Beck's pendulum was swinging away from the Odelay aesthetic, as he spent two records on the lighter side, thereby dictating a turn toward the dark.
As it happens, this is Danger Mouse's true forte, as his productions have almost uniformly been dark, impressionistic pop-noir, whether he's working with Damon Albarn on the Gorillaz or the Good, the Bad & the Queen, or collaborating with Cee-Lo as Gnarls Barkley (whose fluke hit "Crazy" had nasty rumbling undercurrents) or even blues-rockers the Black Keys.
So, he turns out to be a perfect fit for Beck, just perhaps not in the way that many might expect, although the title of their album Modern Guilt should be a big tip-off that these ten tracks are hardly all sunshine and roses.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OrphansBeck | Beck | Play | 03:16 | 7 MB | 20 MB |
| 2 | Gamma RayBeck | Beck | Play | 02:57 | 6 MB | 19 MB |
| 3 | ChemtrailsBeck | Beck | Play | 04:40 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 4 | Modern GuiltBeck | Beck | Play | 03:14 | 7 MB | 24 MB |
| 5 | YouthlessBeck | Beck | Play | 02:59 | 6 MB | 18 MB |
| 6 | WallsBeck, Paul Guiot, Danger Mouse, Paul Piot | Beck | Play | 02:22 | 5 MB | 16 MB |
| 7 | ReplicaBeck | Beck | Play | 03:25 | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| 8 | Soul of a ManBeck | Beck | Play | 02:36 | 5 MB | 15 MB |
| 9 | Profanity PrayersBeck | Beck | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 10 | VolcanoBeck | Beck | Play | 04:28 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 33 mins | 77 MB | |||||
| 33 mins | 219 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beck | Composer, Flute, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Percussion, Primary Artist |
| 2 | Drew Brown | Audio Engineer, Audio Production, Beats, Design, Engineer, Main Personnel, Photography |
| 3 | David Calderley | Layout Design |
| 4 | David Paul Campbell | Conductor, String Arrangements |
| 5 | Larry Corbett | Cello, Main Personnel |
| 6 | Danger Mouse | Audio Production, Beats, Composer, Keyboard Bass, Main Personnel, Producer, Programming, Sounds, Synthesizer |
| 7 | Jason Falkner | Bass, Guitar, Guitar (Bass), Main Personnel |
| 8 | Paul Guiot | Composer |
| 9 | Danny Kalb | Assistant Engineer |
| 10 | Greg Kurstin | Main Personnel, Organ, Piano, Synthesizer |
| 11 | Brian LeBarton | Main Personnel, Synthesizer |
| 12 | Bob Ludwig | Mastering |
| 13 | Matt Mahaffey | Bass, Guitar (Bass), Main Personnel |
| 14 | Nathalie Marchand | Assistant |
| 15 | Chan Marshall | Main Personnel, Vocals |
| 16 | Todd Monfalcone | Assistant Engineer |
| 17 | Paul Piot | Composer |
| 18 | Wesley Seidman | Assistant Engineer |
| 19 | Darrell Thorp | Engineer, Mixing |
| 20 | Seth Waldmann | Assistant Engineer |
| 21 | Joey Waronker | Drums, Main Personnel |
| 22 | Eric Weaver | Assistant Engineer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |