The Information

There's nothing here that Beck hasn't done before, but it sounds unexpected once again, which is a fitting development for an artist who made his name repurposing old material in unexpected ways. Here, he's done a Beck on himself, and built a stronger, funkier, more moving Beck in the process.

At a time when freaky ’60s music is being revived with varying levels of aesthetic discernment, Beck manages to drink the psychedelic Kool-Aid without losing his wits in the process.

An absorbing journey through the still-buzzing mind of one of modern music’s greatest solo artists, The Information could well be regarded as one of its maker’s classics in a year or two; it certain warrants slipping onto a shelf beside the aforementioned hit-spawning ’96 long-player.

Fun, fresh and (mainly) utterly listenable, The Information is the most diverse and, at times, thrilling album you’ll hear all year, and although that word ‘genius’ is horrifically overused these days, it’s more than appropriate to be applied to Beck.

“The Information” — capital T, capital I — implies the goods dissemination-wise, the down-low made official, a definitive assessment of where it’s at, dig? Fortunately, as an album like this makes all too obvious, it’s never that easy.

If you give it time, The Information eventually reveals itself as Beck's tightest, most purposeful album yet.

If Beck gets better as he gets madder, this is definitely his best since ‘Midnite Vultures’ – maybe even since ‘Odelay’.

Overall, this collision of dirty loops and polished pop is Information you need.

One of the best albums Beck has ever made.

Beck has spent 12 years deconstructing musical genres, using samples and beats to bring together the future and the past, and listening to him pick apart himself is just as exhilarating.

Beck’s twitchy pop-funk has rarely come across as this confident. Consider The Information his reanimation.

It always used to feel like Beck was years beyond us but, as The Information attests, the universal struggle is finally catching up with him. Took long enough.

The Information is a bracing reminder that Beck's musical imagination has survived his fall from fashion.