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 Beck fans: come get some Aug 17, 2009
This album is a disjointed and cluttered mix of hog-wash, one might say. One might also say it is a priceless window into the early years of Beck, when he didn't much care what he sounded like, what his style was, and who was going to buy it. As a pretty die-hard fan of Beck myself, this album is a true GEM. Anyone who has heard One Foot in the Grave (the album) will know what to expect to a degree, but Stereopathic Soulmanure is a bit rougher, scattered, and diverse than that. Uber raunchy grunge parodies are studded throughout, but seem to be faithfully followed with down-home bluesy tunes that are of an immense musical quality. Beck is a great composer, but is also a wild one. This album catches both of those aspects and, for the Beck fan, delivers genuine material from the cherished and unpolished early days of Beck, which are most definitely a thing of the past, as Beck skyrockets across the genres with an ever-modern and produced, but still original, sound.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 I don't get it... (2.5 stars) Jul 17, 2008
You know, Beck is respectable but it doesn't mean that I enjoy all of his albums. I mean, nothing by him touches Odelay but there's still other works I enjoy (Mellow Gold, Midnite Vultures, Sea Change, Guero). However, this release is just strange and I wonder how even the biggest fans of the record can listen to each song the whole way STRAIGHT from beginning to end. Sometimes, I view this as a mixtape and One Foot as a demo collection.
The biggest put-off for me is probably the song titles. There are three untitled songs that thereby screw up the rest of the track listing. "No Money No Honey" is listed as track 7 but is really 8, etc (there's two more untitled mystery tracks later, too!). And that one seems like a joke I'd like to use for a song, but it's just a guy saying that for TWO MINUTES! I kid you not.
What I do like is the first two songs, "Pink Noise (Rock Me Amadeus)" and "Rowboat." The former has this cool garage-ish riff and some of his most intense music while the latter is a more steel pedal-infused old-fashioned type country song. It's also somewhat interesting on the fourth track where they have that sample about the aliens, which almost feels like something tied in with the first three date-based titles.
Every time I've tried to listen to it the full way through I've had to hit the skip button before a song ends. I don't know if I think it's creatively brilliant or just outright garbage sometimes. Both sides tell me it's not perfect and both sides agree that the record has some moments. So that's a constant. There's also this pointless noise part that is hidden at the very ending of the album. There's so much you have to get past that I don't know if it's worth it for a casual. It's lo-fi trash vibe has charm but goes over and crosses the line to annoyance at times.
If you get it, just beware.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Seething White Noise Jun 11, 2008
Whew, this one's a workout. About 20 tracks full of mud soaked plurge collated from Beck's home recordings. Truly bizarre, ranks with "Mellow Gold".
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
You'll be strange. Jul 14, 2006
This is collection of random stuff recorded by Beck between 1988 and 1993. It features folk music, country music, guitar freakouts, spoken word tracks and some indescribable weirdness. One of the odd things is some random guy named "Ken" singing a few lines from the Jimmie Rodgers' song "Waiting For a Train". "Rowboat" is a country song (written by Beck) that was famously covered by Johnny Cash. There are two unlisted bonus tracks on the CD. Track 24 features someone saying "Stuck out here in the sand, they shot my mule and burned my wagon. Ran out of sourdough two days ago. Ain't got no more lard. God bless all you folks." Track 25 features five minutes of silence followed by twelve minutes of noise. Serious Beck fans will enjoy this CD, but it may be too "out there" for some people.
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Beck Album #1, Released 1994, Ranking: 8th Jul 12, 2006
This will be the first in my series of brief reviews spanning Beck's major discography. Technically, "Stereopathetic Soulmanure" was an indie release set to accompany "Mellow Gold" in 1994 as part of Beck's innovative contract with Geffen, which allowed him the privilege of putting out records on independent labels alongside his "major" albums. This arrangement would collapse in 1999, after one such indie effort, "Mutations," was considered by Geffen so good as to warrant a widespread release - naturally, lawsuits and general nastiness ensued. But, in the beginning, all was well and in 1994 Beck virtually exploded on the alt-rock scene with the Loser single. Fans were treated to three albums coming out in the span of one year, of which "Stereopathetic" is certainly the weirdest, most varied, and ultimately head-scratching offering.
The album was recorded over a long period of time, consisting of various demos, experiments, and a few finished songs of stunning quality. As such, it is a mere patchwork of "best-of" goodness from Beck's vault. Other albums, such as the early "Golden Feelings" and demo tapes such as "Fresh Meat + Old Slabs" (put together for Beck's mom's birthday) are also out there, and may be more thematically and temporally consistent, but I will not consider them and focus instead on the few moments of genius found on "Stereopathetic." Beck-ologists could spend hours talking about the stories behind each piece of tape ever uncovered, but this is not the place.
So, one of those stunners that immediately hit the listener with the kind of force that accompanies the birth of a major artist is Rowboat, a classic country song that is so woeful and mourning it even made a fan of Johnny Cash, who covered it a few years later. The superb pedal steel that anchors Rowboat and the album's best track, the dusty travelogue ballad Modesto, elevate the two songs to the sublime. There is a tender, windswept elegance to Beck's delivery that flies in the face of his descriptions as a "slacker," "Gen. X icon," "indie prankster" etc. He is being, or if not, he damn well sounds, deeply sincere. This Hank Williams-inspired character would show up later on "Mutations" and especially on his magnum opus "Sea Change," but the world took little notice when shades of this future were already apparent on "Stereopathetic."
I also have to mention "Puttin' It Down," a rejection-themed acoustic piece that is perfect in its conciseness. Beck's defiant, assured tone and the fuzzy, powerful strumming makes for one of those songs destined to become lost gems.
Finally, it is a bit strange for the smallest and most obscure work in Beck's official discography to produce two of the most popular songs among fans, but so it is. One Foot In The Grave is a raucuous harmonica stomp, presented here in a murky live rendition, which has somehow found its way into almost every one of Beck's shows thereafter (for almost twelve years now, when the harmonica comes out fans go wild, and the improvisations on this song have been endless and remarkably creative).
Satan Gave Me A Taco could almost merit its own review, although, unlike One Foot, it is notable in its subsequent elusiveness. Along with Beck's debut 7" single, the brilliant MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack, it's the one song a Beck fan would die to hear live (and such events are rare). A story-song of uncommon hilarity and wild inventivity, it unfolds with a slowly developing surrealist twist on the wackiest of ideas and images. Oh yes, and a banjo starts playing. Beck's talent at free-flowing writing (in the purest sense, apart from musicianship) is exercised at various degrees and with various forms of success throughout his career. But Satan Gave Me A Taco is a perfect example of Beck's creative potential when untempered.
As is, in fact, "Stereopathetic" as a whole. There are many interesting moments, and a few extraordinary highlights, but it must be ranked 8th out of 8 in terms of official albums because of the simple fact that, by comparison with all his other efforts, even with "One Foot In The Grave," 1994's other independent release, there is little unity and little polish (ironically, the most disjointed album besides "Stereopathetic" is his latest, the best-of-collage-type "Guero"). As a starting point, it is however a revelation and an unending source of interesting and promising material.
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