Just Another Perfect Night

Beck “Wow”

“Wow” slots into the Odelay/Midnite Vultures/Guero wing of the Beck discography, but it doesn’t feel quite like anything from those records. This song, along with last year’s “Dreams,” finds Beck exploring a vibe that’s so chill that it’s nearly vapid. There’s a void at the center of most of his late period material, and while the sadder songs stare into that void, “Wow” is like diving gracefully into it while wearing comfortable but extremely expensive clothes. A lot of the lyrics here are intentional cliches – “it’s your life / you gotta try to get it right” – but there’s a lot of old school absurdist Beck-isms in the mix too. “Girl in a bikini with the Lamborghini shih tzu” is a silly yet vivid line worthy of Midnite Vultures, but my favorite bit is when he raps “my demon’s on the cell phone to YOUR demons.” It’s a funny image, but it suggests an alienation from his own negative feelings so intense they’re removed from himself. This is Beck’s version of “YOLO” – live your life, do it right, have fun, and distance yourself from all bad vibes.

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