Beck Launches Record Club, Covers The Velvet Underground

by Michael Katzif

I'm a major fan of Beck: For me, he's one of those musicians where, no matter what direction he takes, I'll follow. Some albums are better than others, but the guy's music earns a free pass from me because it's always evolving while still sounding like, well, Beck.

So when news came out the other day about a new Beck project surfacing on his Web site, it was hard not to be excited.

The project, called Record Club, looks to be a lot of fun: Beck and a slew of other musicians and friends will record another artist's album in its entirety, in a single day, without any rehearsing or arranging done beforehand. Over the next month, Beck will release those songs one by one on his site. The first album they're tackling? The Velvet Underground & Nico.

Starting with The Velvet Underground is ambitious, but should yield some inspired moments.

The first song came out earlier today, "Sunday Morning," and it's pretty great. With Nigel Godrich involved, it takes on the mellow moods and gorgeous layers of melodies found on my two favorite Beck albums, Mutations and Sea Change. I can only hope that this will ultimately yield an actual, tangible album -- I'd certainly buy it.

Here's a bit more info from his site:

For this first edition, after lengthy deliberation and coming close to covering Digital Underground's Sex Packets, all present voted in favor of the "other" Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico. Participants included this time around are Nigel Godrich, Joey Waronker, Brian Lebarton, Bram Inscore, Yo, Giovanni Ribisi, Chris Holmes, and from Iceland, special guest Thorunn Magnusdottir, and myself. Thanks to everyone who helped put this together, and to all of you for indulging in this experiment. More soon.

What album do you want Beck to cover next?

10:09 AM ET | 06-19-2009 | permalink

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