Midnite Vultures

Midnite Vultures is the seventh studio album by American musician Beck, released on November 23, 1999, by DGC Records. While similar to most of Beck's previous albums in its exploration of widely varying styles, it did not achieve the same blockbuster success as his breakthrough album Odelay, but was still critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The album's sound marked a compositional departure from the psychedelic hip hop, alternative rock, and sample-based music in his previous albums towards a funk rock and R&B style.

Midnite Vultures
Studio album by
Beck
ReleasedNovember 23, 1999
RecordedJuly 1998–June 1999
StudioSoft Studios and PCP Labs (Los Angeles)
Genre
Length58:52
Label
Producer
Beck chronology
Mutations
(1998)		 Midnite Vultures
(1999)		 Stray Blues
(2000)
Singles from Midnite Vultures
  1. "Sexx Laws"
    Released: October 25, 1999
  2. "Mixed Bizness"
    Released: March 7, 2000
  3. "Nicotine & Gravy"
    Released: July 2000

Recording

Working titles for the album included Zatyricon (the name of a song released in 2000 as a B-side on the "Nicotine & Gravy" single and later included on the Beck EP) and I Can Smell the V.D. in the Club Tonight (a line from "Milk & Honey").[4]

Influences

Several songs were directly inspired by other songs: "Get Real Paid" features a spiraling sequencer motif reminiscent of Kraftwerk's "Home Computer"; a synth breakdown in "Milk & Honey" echoes a similar riff in Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message"; "Beautiful Way" came about after listening to The Velvet Underground's "Countess from Hong Kong"; and "Debra" was inspired by both Prince's song "Adore" and the David Bowie song "Win".

Release

Midnite Vultures reached number 34 in the US, where it went gold, and also hit number 19 in the UK. As of July 2008, Midnite Vultures has sold 743,000 copies in the United States.[5]

The first promotional shows for the album came in late 1999, including a headlining performance at the first Coachella festival on October 9 alongside The Chemical Brothers, Rage Against the Machine and Tool.

Beck had also appeared on the Saturday Night Live episode (dated December 4),[6] The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,[7] and the VH1! Fashion Show.[8]

During the following year Beck continued to tour, playing in the U.S., Japan, and at large European festivals such as Bizarre Festival, Reading and Leeds Festival and more, playing about 80 shows from January '00 until September '00. The "Vultures" tour was also the last tour featuring DJ Swamp as a part of Beck's touring band, whom he had been a part of since 1997.

The first 500,000 copies came in a digipak.

A thirty-second segment of "Beautiful Way" has been bundled with Windows ME as a demo song for Windows Media Player 7, under the name "beck.asf". The song showcased Media Player's Internet integration by displaying a clickable image link.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic83/100[9]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[10]
Alternative Press5/5[11]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[12]
The Guardian[13]
Los Angeles Times[3]
NME8/10[14]
Pitchfork8.5/10[1]
Q[15]
Rolling Stone[16]
Select5/5[17]

Midnite Vultures was praised by most critics, and the album holds a score of 83 at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[9] Jon Pareles of Rolling Stone remarked that on Midnite Vultures, Beck "plays the insider, riding the executive plane through the good life with every need fulfilled."[16] Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that he gives the album "a cinematic richness, depth and detail with an array of mutations and surprises, from banjo hoedown to electronic effects".[3] The NME felt that the album, while narrower in scope than Odelay, is "more immediate in impact".[14]

Q praised Midnite Vultures as an often "musically dazzling" album, while noting that "the one criticism that can be still levelled at Beck is that his songs remain strangely soulless, failing to ever really grip the emotions or stir the soul."[15] In a mixed review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic states that while the album's initial songs are "tight, catchy, and memorable, the production dense", the "awkward, misguided shift in tone" of "Hollywood Freaks" gives the rest of the album the impression that "for all the ingenuity, it's just a hipster joke."[10] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice felt that "his problem isn't that he tries to be funny, but that his jokes are as forced as his horn charts",[18] later giving it a one-star honorable mention rating and remarking that it "does eventually get funky, if anybody cares but me."[19]

Midnite Vultures was nominated in 2001 for Album of the Year at the 43rd Grammy Awards.

In 2006, Midnite Vultures was named the 50th "Worst Album Ever" by Q.[20] Conversely, in 2013, NME ranked the album at number 307 in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[21]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Beck Hansen, except where noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Sexx Laws" 3:39
2."Nicotine & Gravy" 5:13
3."Mixed Bizness" 4:10
4."Get Real Paid" 4:44
5."Hollywood Freaks"Hansen, John King, Michael Simpson3:59
6."Peaches & Cream" 4:54
7."Broken Train" 4:11
8."Milk & Honey"Hansen, Buzz Clifford5:18
9."Beautiful Way" 5:44
10."Pressure Zone" 3:14
11."Debra" ("Debra" ends at 5:42, an untitled hidden track starts at 12:42)Ed Green, Hansen, John King, Michael Simpson13:46
Japanese release bonus track
No.TitleLength
12."Arabian Nights" (includes hidden track included on other pressings)5:37
Best Buy limited edition bonus disc
No.TitleLength
1."Salt in the Wound"3:24
2."This Is My Crew"3:55
3."Sexx Laws" (Malibu remix)6:52

Personnel
  • Beck – vocals, production; keyboards (tracks 1, 6, 7, 10), guitar (tracks 2, 6, 7, 9, 10), synthesizer (track 2, 4, 8), piano (track 2), vocoder (track 3, 8), choir vocals (track 4), bass synthesizer (track 5), backing vocals (tracks 6, 7, 10), handclaps (track 6), marimbas (track 7), harmonica (tracks 7, 9), acoustic guitar (track 8), bass (track 9), programming (tracks 1-4, 6-8, 10), mixing (tracks 1-6, 8), horn arrangements (tracks 1, 3, 6)
  • Justin Meldal-Johnsen – bass (tracks 1-8, 10), synthesizer (track 2), backing vocals (track 3), shaker (track 3), percussion (tracks 6, 7), handclaps (track 6), guitar (track 8), noise (10), upright bass (track 11)
  • Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – synthesizer (tracks 1-8, 10), piano (tracks 1, 2, 8, 10), tambourine (tracks 1, 9, 10), shaker (tracks 1, 10), clavinet (tracks 2, 7, 8), vocoder (track 3, 8), backing vocals (track 3, 10), choir vocals (track 4), organ (track 6, 11), percussion (tracks 6, 7), handclaps (track 6), acoustic guitar (track 7), guitar (track 8), electronic drums (track 8), keyboards (track 9), Fender Rhodes electric piano (track 11)
  • Smokey Hormel – guitar (tracks 1, 3, 8, 11)
  • Joey Waronker – drums (tracks 3, 7, 8, 10, 11), percussion (track 10)
  • David Arthur Brown – tenor sax (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6)
  • Jon Birdsong – trumpet (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6)
  • David Ralicke – trombone (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6)
  • Tony Hoffer – co-production (tracks 3, 4, 8, 10), mixing (tracks 3, 4, 8, 10), programming (tracks 3, 4, 5, 8, 10), sound design (4, 10), engineering (track 3, 4, 8, 10), guitar (track 3, 8)
  • David Campbell – viola (track 2), string arrangements (track 2), string conductor (track 2)
  • Larry Corbett – cello (track 2)
  • Joel Derouin – violin (track 2)
  • Brian Gardner – mastering
  • Bernie Grundman – mastering
  • Greg Leisz – pedal steel (track 9)
  • Jay Dee Maness – pedal steel (tracks 1, 9)
  • Johnny Marr – guitar (track 8)
  • Michael Patterson – mixing (tracks 1-6, 8, 11)
  • Herb Pedersen – banjo (tracks 1, 2)
  • Fernando Pullum – horn (track 11)
  • Joe Turano – horn (track 11), backing vocals (track 11)
  • Arnold McCuller – backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
  • Beth Orton – backing vocals (track 9)
  • Chris Bellman – mastering
  • The Dust Brothers – production (tracks 5, 11), scratching (track 5), programming (track 5), engineering (track 5)
  • Robert Carranza – string engineer (track 2)
  • Steve Baxter – horn (track 11), backing vocals (track 11)
  • Steve Mixdorf – second engineer
  • Valerie Pinkston – backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
  • Mickey Petralia – programming (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9), production (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9), engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4, 7, 9), mixing (track 1, 2, 6-10)
  • Shauna O'Brien – project manager
  • DJ Swamp – scratching (track 2)
  • Eve Butler – violin (track 2)
  • Charlie Gross – photography
  • Arroyo Bombers – gang chorus (track 5)
  • Arroyo Tabernacle Men's Chorale – choir (track 6)
  • Derek Carlson – second engineer
  • Eye – artwork, art direction, design, collage
  • Gimbop – layout direction
  • Michel Gondry – collage
  • SA

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[36] Platinum 100,000^
Japan (RIAJ)[37] Gold 100,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[38] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[39] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. DiCrescenzo, Brent (November 25, 1999). "Beck: Midnite Vultures". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on October 23, 2006. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  2. Phipps, Keith (November 23, 1999). "Beck: Midnite Vultures". The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  3. Cromelin, Richard (November 21, 1999). "Beck Reaches Deeper but Keeps Party Spirit". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  4. "Beck "Milk and Honey" Lyrics". Whiskyclone.net. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  5. "Ask Billboard". Billboard. 2008-07-18. Archived from the original on 2008-08-01. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
  6. "Hijacked Flavors - Concert Info - December 4, 1999". whiskeyclone.net. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  7. "Hijacked Flavors - Concert Info - December 10, 1999". whiskeyclone.net. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  8. "Hijacked Flavors - Concert Info - December 5, 1999". whiskeyclone.net. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  9. "Reviews for Midnite Vultures by Beck". Metacritic. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  10. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Midnite Vultures – Beck". AllMusic. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  11. "Beck: Midnite Vultures". Alternative Press (137): 81. December 1999.
  12. Willman, Chris (November 26, 1999). "Midnite Vultures". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  13. Cox, Tom (November 12, 1999). "Arty like it's 1999". The Guardian.
  14. Cameron, Keith (November 17, 1999). "Beck – Midnite Vultures". NME. Archived from the original on August 18, 2000. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  15. Doyle, Tom (December 1999). "Beck: Midnite Vultures". Q (159): 124–25. Archived from the original on January 29, 2000. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  16. Pareles, Jon (December 9, 1999). "Midnite Vultures". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  17. Lowe, Steve (December 1999). "Pretty fly for a white guy". Select (114): 84–85.
  18. Christgau, Robert (February 22, 2000). "Flak on Both Sides". The Village Voice. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  19. Christgau, Robert (2000). "Beck: Midnite Vultures". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24560-2.
  20. "Rocklist.net...Q Magazine Lists." Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  21. "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time: 400–301". NME. 23 October 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  22. "Australiancharts.com – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  23. "Austriancharts.at – Beck – Midnite Vultures" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  24. "Ultratop.be – Beck – Midnite Vultures" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  25. "Listen - Danmarks Officielle Hitliste - Udarbejdet af AIM Nielsen for IFPI Danmark - Uge 48". Ekstra Bladet (in Danish). Copenhagen. 1999-12-05.
  26. "Dutchcharts.nl – Beck – Midnite Vultures" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  27. "Lescharts.com – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  28. "Officialcharts.de – Beck – Midnite Vultures". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  29. "Charts.nz – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  30. "Norwegiancharts.com – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  31. "Swedishcharts.com – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  32. "Swisscharts.com – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  33. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  34. "Beck Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  35. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2000". Billboard. 2 January 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  36. "Canadian album certifications – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Music Canada.
  37. "Japanese album certifications – Beck – Midnite Vultures" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Select 1999年12月 on the drop-down menu
  38. "British album certifications – Beck – Midnite Vultures". British Phonographic Industry.
  39. "American album certifications – Beck – Midnite Vultures". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
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