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MUSIC: Beck, Manchester Apollo, Wednesday, July 2
25/ 6/2008
With movie superhero mania reaching fever pitch, now might be a good time to remind ourselves of a real-life saviour who’s been roving the musical galaxy for a good decade.
That man is American pop hero Beck Hansen, who typically comes with his own dazzling superpower – an ability to shift musical styles like some shape-shifting chameleon.
In a mercurial 15-year career, Beck has demonstrated an impressive array of musical super-strengths – hip-hop prowess, Prince-style funk and hip-swinging, rock’n’roll and even country and western music.
This is one character you can rely on to bring some eccentric, unpredictable genius to a music world in need of rescue.
Beck’s endurance is all the more remarkable given that his breakthrough album, 1995’s Odelay, was the sort of record which could have become a real albatross.
Critically acclaimed and hailed as one of the landmark albums of the Nineties, it was the work that cemented Beck’s status as an angelic cult hero for the MTV student slacker generation.
But underneath the lightweight slacker guise was a real superman, one who’s been able to adopt and discard musical identities, yet never ever lose grasp of his instinctive pop nous.
His latest album, Modern Guilt, sees him collaborate with in-vogue producer Dangermouse to create arguably his most freewheeling, eclectic collection of songs, further underlining his status as a star who won’t abandon the music world in an emergency.
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