Midnite Vultures

It’s party time in El Lay on Beck’s 1999 set Midnite Vultures. But as befits this masterful pop subversive, the grooves conceal booby traps and the lyrics both tickle and lacerate. The album is awash in hot colors from the ‘70s, celebrating the era’s post-hippie hedonism with a freewheeling sense of experimentation. Beck blends in contemporary hip-hop influences to lift the album beyond retro status—“Hollywood Freaks,” for instance, sounds like Kim Fowley and George Clinton jamming with A Tribe Called Quest. Tracks like “Nicotine & Gravy,” “Peaches & Cream," and “Pressure Zone” are dense, quivering confections that whirl and swoosh around Beck’s sly vocals. “Milk & Honey” whips the froth to a particularly luscious peak, lacing its humid textures with disturbing imagery. From the fat brass soul of “Sexx Laws” to the bubbly electronica of “Get Real Paid” and the jungle funk of “Broken Train,” there’s an impressive variety to these decadent sonic visions. Beck brazenly grabs for Prince’s purple crown as he scales falsetto heights on the closing track, “Debra.”