Long Player: Here, there is time to pause and take stock

"The pause that refreshes", a slogan used by Coca-Cola back in the late 1920s, will take some beating.

It stops a body in its tracks and begs it to indulge in a little diversion, something that will breathe new life into any pursuit.

The catch phrase sums up Mutations, the 1998 album by idiosyncratic Californian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Beck Hansen, better than most more long-winded attempts to describe its appeal.

Certainly, to those who were still in the thrall of Beck's infectious, hyperactive 1996 breakthrough album Odelay, the sudden shift in momentum came as a surprise, an understated and underwhelming follow-up to a hit-packed Grammy-winner.

In fact, there were dubious denials from both the artist and his major label Geffen Records that Mutations was an official follow-up, Beck having originally hoped to release the album on small indie outfit Bong Load Records before Geffen reneged on the deal and took control.

But this mattered little to a record-buying public eager to hear more from the man who had brought them stoner anthem Loser and hip-hop-fuelled hits such as Where It's At, Devil's Haircut and The New Pollution.

Mutations proves Beck as adept at crafting subtle and melodic songs based on traditional forms as he is at creating the innovative, sample-heavy patchworks that had garnered him attention to that point.

Though his lyrics are colourful and mind-bendingly cryptic as ever, the tone is more reflective and the mood more relaxed as he turns in a mature set of country-folk, blues, psych-pop and bossa nova beauties.

Of the album's three singles, only Tropicalia received significant airplay, but its breezy Latin energy is not representative of the album's overall muted ambience.

Richer rewards lie in the steady march of Cold Brains, the Doors-like raga of Nobody's Fault But My Own and the cultivated air of the harpsichord-embellished We Live Again.

Here, there is time to pause and take stock.

 

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