Beck has often used indirection to his advantage. In his roughly twenty-five-year career, he has made so many costume changes that nobody was surprised when, for instance, he released a lavishly produced book called “Song Reader,” which offered twenty new songs only in sheet-music form. His first commercial success was “Loser,” back in 1993, a song that seemed like a loving translation of a rap tune from English into Dada. Since then, I’ve watched him play greatest-hits sets with his longtime travelling band, and work with gospel choirs. All these endeavors have wandered in and out of sense—and brilliance—as if there were...
Read the entire article in The New Yorker:
Watch Beck Perform "Lost Cause" Live via YouTube: