While acknowledging the genius of “Loser”, in 1994 few were backing Beck to amount to being much more than a one-hit wonder. One Foot In The Grave – the “indie” release that followed Mellow Gold fleshed out his profile considerably.
Here, there was much of the same Dylanesque wordplay (“There’s blood on the futon/A kid drinking fire…”), some good jokes (“Asshole”), but also a faithful Skip James cover, making this a bizarre mix of earnest rootsiness and hipster jiving. This adds 16 fragmentary new tracks, contributing to the idea of this as the flaky, “Unplugged” flipside to the MTV phenomenon.
JOHN ROBINSON
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