(Credits: Far Out / Tidal)
Wed 14 January 2026 4:00, UK
Although he’s quite a big name in music nowadays, Beck didn’t have an easy rise to fame, and, in fact, in the beginning, he endured an upward battle before his fifth studio album, Odelay, achieved the breakthrough he’d been gunning for.
That was the case, but this didn’t mean his earlier material wasn’t worth listening to. In fact, that Beck was significantly ahead of his time meant that he struggled to land among specific audiences, his fusion of several genres and styles making it hard to place him among the other, more sturdy figures in rock, country, or otherwise.
The first single that caused a shift was ‘Loser’, which led to his popular major-label album, Mellow Gold. From there, it was onwards and upwards for Beck, and it wasn’t long before people celebrated him for the artist that he always was – a bit of an outsider type who wasn’t afraid of trying out new things, even if they weren’t adhering to the so-called mainstream.
But as with most groundbreaking revolutionaries, Beck was only able to smash the glass ceiling by admiring those who did the exact same thing, those who were just as unafraid to exist outside of the status quo, even if it meant that their rise to fame would take a little longer than those who played the game and ticked all the right boxes to get there.
Instead, Beck listened to his collection of influences, absorbing their ability to make the music they wanted and execute the artistic identities or visions they wanted to, without caring much about the consequences of doing so, because artists like David Bowie, Scott Walker, Cocteau Twins, and The Velvet Underground are all ones that shaped Beck’s vision, pointing him towards a more artistically liberated journey that encouraged active defiance against the norm.
In fact, when you look at Beck’s favourite songs, this is a common theme, and among them are tracks like Bowie’s ‘Lady Grinning Soul’, Walker’s ’30 Century Man’, Zola Jesus’ ‘Night’, Cocteau Twins’ ‘Cherry-coloured Funk’, and more, but when asked his all-time favourite, his answer was the most revealing of them all – The Velvet Underground’s ‘Sunday Morning’.
He didn’t give much explanation, but it’s easy to figure out why, because after all, as one of the more far-out tracks on the record, it’s also incredibly simple, with Lou Reed’s gentle vocal performance clashing with the broader themes and creating an atmosphere that feels calm, subtly melancholy, and overwhelmingly bittersweet.
At the time, it was created to be a hit, and ended up being an album stand-out because it was far smoother in its production compared to the rest of the tracks, but he lyrics themselves are anything but soothing, and were inspired by Andy Warhol, who told him to write something powerful about “paranoia”.
Clearly, it worked for Beck, too, enough for him to consider it the best song of all time, and one that evidently inspires his attitude towards soothing and challenging the listener with themes that, although potentially unsettling in message, resonate with them, like a moment of reflection, when wallowing blurs into something more beautiful and real.
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