Mutations was released on Nov. 3rd of 1998. If you haven't already purchased Mutations then go buy it now!

My Review

I would recommend Mutations to all the Beck fans. I found Becks Mutations to be very intriguing. His style still amazes me, how he can create such lovely songs and lyrics that make no sense. I also like the song Tropicalia because of its Bossa Nova style. I also like the hidden track Diamond Bollocks because it differs from the other tracks on the album. Another thing I enjoyed about Mutations is the way that he implemented a harpsicord into the album, because the harpsicord is one of my favorite instruments. Thus, I give this album 5 out of 5 stars. 

    -- But even if he doesn't find exactly the right pitch every time, Beck has
        entered his prime as a songwriter, which is exciting. Few lyricists of his
        generation are coming up with lines as good as "Doldrums are
        pounding/Cheapskates are clowning this town" ("Dead Melodies"). It's also a
        testament to his talent that he has so effortlessly assimilated bossa nova into
        his repertoire, as he did last year on the single "Deadweight" and as he does
        here with the wonderful "Tropicalia," a tribute to the progressive Brazilian
        music of the same name from the Sixties and Seventies. Like Brazilian
        musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Jorge Ben (who was sampled on
        "Deadweight"), Beck is a singer-songwriter with a sophisticated sense of
        rhythm. Here, a silvery, uplifting groove brings to life a macabre carnival in
        which "tourists snore and decay" and people "dance in a reptile blaze."--
          <Above - From the Rolling Stones Review Below- © 1998>

        Let's call this song "Where it's Not": "There is no one, nothing to see," sings
        Beck. "The night is useless, and so are we." "Night birds will cackle," he
        intones on another track, "rotting like apples on trees." The
        twenty-eight-year-old Beck Hansen's new album, Mutations, brims with
        death, decay and decrepitude. But in its own peculiar way, it's also his
        prettiest record to date.

        On Mutations -- recorded in two weeks last spring -- Beck stops talking
        down to his tuneful side. Compared with the funk collage of 1996's Odelay
        or the raw anti-folk of 1994's One Foot in the Grave, this is an album of
        comfort songs. Assisted by Nigel Godrich (who co-produced Radiohead's
        OK Computer), Beck finally gives his melodies -- some of them, like
        "Cancelled Check" and "Static," as old as his first demo tapes -- the full
        studio treatment, letting them seep into pellucid Sixties folk-pop
        arrangements. The most gorgeous example of this is "Nobody's Fault but My
        Own," a wise, dreamy song traced by sitars and strings arranged by Beck's
        father, David Campbell. "When the moon is a counterfeit," sings Beck,
        "better find the one that fits/Better find the one that lights the way for you." It
        sounds like he's singing about a bad relationship, but he might as well be
        delivering a personal manifesto; he's doffed the rhinestone suit and James
        Brown schtick for a new costume.

        Mutations is a highly mannered album that references vintage psychedelic
        folk and rock as overtly as Odelay sampled Schubert. "Lazy Flies" has the
        same arch, carousel-like tone as the Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr.
        Kite"; "Bottle of Blues" rolls along like the Kinks at their Muswell Hillbillies
        rootsiest. The album's affectations can be overpowering: "Lazy Flies" is a
        Hieronymus Bosch painting populated by "dead horses" and "shadows of
        sulphur." "We Live Again" is comically dreary; "Oh, I grow weary of the
        end," Beck moans. Amid the track's harpsichords and elevator-music
        slothfulness, Beck's insincerity -- which we can forgive or enjoy in other
        contexts -- doesn't quite fit; it seems a bit cold and removed.

        But even if he doesn't find exactly the right pitch every time, Beck has
        entered his prime as a songwriter, which is exciting. Few lyricists of his
        generation are coming up with lines as good as "Doldrums are
        pounding/Cheapskates are clowning this town" ("Dead Melodies"). It's also a
        testament to his talent that he has so effortlessly assimilated bossa nova into
        his repertoire, as he did last year on the single "Deadweight" and as he does
        here with the wonderful "Tropicalia," a tribute to the progressive Brazilian
        music of the same name from the Sixties and Seventies. Like Brazilian
        musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Jorge Ben (who was sampled on
        "Deadweight"), Beck is a singer-songwriter with a sophisticated sense of
        rhythm. Here, a silvery, uplifting groove brings to life a macabre carnival in
        which "tourists snore and decay" and people "dance in a reptile blaze."

        It's that combination of the straightforward and the surreal that Beck has
        always pursued, and on Mutations he's found some kind of balance. Like
        the blues singer he once wanted to be, he broods, moans and frets -- but
        there's joy in the music. (RS 800)

        NATHAN BRACKETT

        Copyright © 1968-1998 Rolling Stone Network. All Rights Reserved.  -  Rolling Stone Network

        Exclusive Review from 

        Mutations isn't much of a departure from Beck's usual blend of folk, rock,
        and pop, but these songs have evolved in a subtle new direction. Perhaps
        inspired by the meta-pop commentary David Bowie made in his "Song For
        Bob Dylan," Beck has morphed his celebrated Dylan-isms into Bowie-isms.
        Rockers everywhere have tipped their hats to Ziggy Stardust, but Beck opts
        to plumb the eccentric Hunky Dory era of the Thin White Duke. The
        Bowie-ismo crops up throughout the album, but a couple tracks in particular
        recall specific pages from the Bowie scrap-book: "Bottle of Blues" all but
        resurrects "Kooks," and the lead track, "Cold Brains," is a double time warp
        whammy that looks back at "Major Tom" from the post-electronica present
        via vintage instruments that provide lots of '60s-style futuristic ambiance.

        Elsewhere, Beck delves into other semi-acoustic pop sounds of the '60s,
        channeling "The Girl From Ipanema" ("Tropicalli") as savvily as he conjures
        up the Beatles in an acoustic mood ("Dead Melodies") and the Rolling Stones
        at the peak of their love affair with honky-tonk Americana ("Canceled
        Check").

        With Mutations, Beck doesn't go anywhere that we haven't all been before,
        but thanks to his wry inventiveness and subtle humor it's more than just a
        stroll down memory lane.

        Sandy Masuo

        © 1998 MTV Networks. All Rights Reserved.  -  MTV Online
 

        Exclusive Review from 

        Like the soundtrack to a low-budget western, the songs on Mutations have
        a loose, melancholy, late-night feel. Beck seems to have taken off his shiny
        blue suit, loosened his tie and recorded these abstract musings in between
        gigs to promote Odelay, the sprawling, brilliant, cut-&-paste 1996 classic
        that sums up the best music made in the 90s. Mutations was originally
        recorded for release on the indie label Bong Load and later reclaimed by
        Geffen. Geffen may be promoting this low key effort as "transitional" not to
        turn off Odelay fans, but the eleven songs on Mutations are beautifully
        crafted, oscillating smoothly between country & cabaret, folk & space-pop,
        raga and ragtime. Although the resulting sonic landscape is a departure from
        the funk and breakbeats of Odelay, the new album has a quiet magic of its
        own. Nigel Godrich (OK Computer) produced the album and David
        Campbell, Beck's dad, created rich orchestration on two tracks.

        Outstanding tracks: "Nobody's Fault But Mine" a psychedelic, folksy drone
        in which Beck evokes Oliver Stone imagery and sets it to classical Indian
        instrumentation. The jazzy, piano-driven "O Maria", and the fuzzed-out,
        unlisted gem-of-a-guitar-rocker "Diamond Bollocks" which closes this
        fascinating, alternatively dark and light album.

        Nusrat Durrani

        © 1998 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.  -  VH1 Online