“I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?”

Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) , singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, is known by the stage name Beck.

The four-time platinum artist rose to underground popularity with his early works, which combined social criticism with musical and lyrical experimentation. He first earned wider public attention for his breakthrough single “Loser”, a 1994 hit. Beck is known for creating musical collages of a wide range of styles.

Loser (official video):

Beck’s 1996 album Odelay was awarded Album of the Year by the American magazine Rolling Stone and by UK publications NME and Mojo. Odelay also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Both Odelay and Sea Change appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Beck – Live at Union Chapel, 2003 (Full Show):

Setlist:

00:48 – The Golden Age
05:01 – It’s All In Your Mind
08:30 – Guess I’m Doing Fine
14:22 – Lonesome Tears
19:00 – Nicotine & Gravy
24:34 – Lost Cause
28:18 – Ship In A Bottle
32:54 – Fourteen Rivers, Fourteen Floods
36:48 – Loser
44:03 – Nobody’s Fault But My Own
48:53 – Lord Only Knows

My top 25 Beck songs (Spotify):

Allmusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine):

Initially pegged as something as a voice of a generation when “Loser” turned into a smash crossover success, Beck did wind up crystallizing much of the post-modern ruckus of the ‘90s alternative explosion, but in unexpected ways. Based in the underground anti-folk and noise-rock worlds, Beck encompassed all manners of modern music, drawing in hip-hop, blues, trash-rock, pop, soul, lounge music…pretty much any found sound or vinyl dug up from a dusty crate, blurring boundaries and encapsulating how ‘90s hipsters looked toward the future by foraging through the past.

– Hallgeir