Beck - Mixed Bizness

(Geffen, 2000)

Beck kinda lost me around this time, as his songs started disappearing within the overstuffed production and the fun seemed more and more forced. “Mixed Bizness” is a sleek funk party jam, but it all feels cold, empty, professional. There was a ramshackle goofiness, a discernable personality, on his earlier work, lost now under the relentless lover-man posturing and studio craftsmanship (even though I do laugh at that “Pour champagne on a honeybee” line). Much worse is the unnecessary “Dirty Bixin Mixness” version on the B-side – I doubt any Beck song was remixed more times and with less rewards than “Mixed Bizness” – which brings the percussion to the forefront and makes it sound like, uh, a Fatboy Slim single. Pass.