One Foot in the Grave [Expanded Edition] [15th Anniversary Edition] [Bonus Track

Performer: Beck
Artist: Calvin Johnson; Scott Plouf; Chris Ballew
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Beck (vocals, guitar, bass, drums); Calvin Johnson, Sam Jayne (vocals); Chris Ballew (guitar, bass); James Bertram (bass); Scott Plouf (drums); Mario Prietto (bongos). Recorded at Dub Narcotic, Olympia, Washington in October 1993 and January 1994. Just prior to MELLOW GOLD, Beck and future Built To Spill/then-Spinanes drummer Scott Plouf recorded this collection of low-key slacker-blues cuts that immediately became a cult sensation. The two-disc reissue precisely doubles the available material, most notably including a long-out-print K Records seven-inch, which features a particularly noteworthy original take on SEA CHANGE's moving "It's All In Your Mind." Elsewhere, it's mostly alternate takes of tracks from the ONE FOOT sessions, although they receive a boost in value from having never been released. Perhaps most importantly, the existing ONE FOOT benefits enormously from an overhaul of its humble 8-track beginnings. This collection of performances by musical chameleon Beck Hansen came out hard on the heels of the mega-success of MELLOW GOLD, as the MTV world was promoting him as the alternative rock poster boy of the anthemic "Loser." The unsuspecting listener picking up ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE will be disarmed (to say the least) by its content--the album is a collection of folksy, bluesy recordings of the sparest lo-fi variety. Although there are some Sebadoh-style punky screamers such as "Burnt Orange Peels" in the mix, Beck mostly spends most of his time on ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE creating beautiful shoegazer-folk moments such as "Cyanide Breath Mint," which transcends its slacker title with an alluring drone and beautifully dark lyrics. "Hollow Log" is your basic pretty, fireside folk song done right, while "I Get Lonesome" has Beck and K Records supremo Calvin Johnson duetting on a simple, mournful tune. While those weaned on Beck's higher-gloss MTV-ready output may not fully appreciate ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, it's the first true example of his versatility, not to mention a subtly beautiful record. Recorded prior to Mellow Gold but released several months after that album turned Beck into an overnight sensation, One Foot in the Grave bolsters his neo-folkie credibility the way the nearly simultaneously released Stereopathetic Soul Manure accentuated his underground noise prankster credentials. One Foot is neatly perched between authentic folk-blues -- it opens with "He's a Mighty Good Leader," a traditional number sometimes credited to Skip James, and he rewrites Rev. Gary Davis' "You Gotta Move" as "Fourteen Rivers Fourteen Floods" -- and the shambolic, indie anti-folk coming out of the Northwest in the early '90s, a connection underscored by the record's initial release on Calvin Johnson's Olympia, WA-based K Records, and its production by Johnson, who also sings on a couple of cuts. Parts of One Foot in the Grave may be reminiscent of other K acts, particularly the ragged parts, but it's also distinctively Beck in how it blurs lines between the past and present, the traditional and the modern, the sincere and the sarcastic. Certainly, of his three 1994 albums, One Foot errs in favor of the sincere, partially due to those folk-blues covers, but also in its overall hushed feel, its muted acoustic guitars and murmured vocals suggesting an intimacy that the words don't always convey. Much of the album is about mood as much as song, a situation not uncommon to Beck, which is hardly a problem because the ramshackle sound is charming and the songwriting is often excellent, channeling Beck's skewed sensibilities into a traditional setting, particularly on the excellent "Asshole," which is hardly as smirking as its title. It's that delicate, almost accidental, balance of exposed nerves and cutting with that sets One Foot in the Grave apart from Beck's other albums; he'd revisit this sound and sensibility, but never again was he so beguilingly ragged. [Interscope issued an expanded 15th Anniversary Edition in 2009.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]ts crudely recorded ballads and occasional bursts of gnarly distortion are clear precursors to the beats-based folk-hop of 'Loser.'" Rolling Stone (12/29/94-1/12/95, p.174) - "...a naked-strum treat of Dylanesque tripwire lyricism and post-punk field-holler pop." Spin (10/94, pp.108-110) - Recommended - "...Beck, after all, is the first '70s brat to further the folkie tradition (an acoustic guitar and deferred dream) by acknowledging hip hop as the most compelling `80s-`90s voice of the pissed and dissed..." Alternative Press (11/94, p.81) - "...He's always seductively lazy, spinning out throwaway songs with a disarming casualness yet managing to insinuate a subversive musical deconstruction into everything..." Option (9-10/94, p.92) - "...ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE distills the songwriter's essence in 16 phenomenal tracks drawing from the traditional country-blues and gospel that inspired the Pussy Galore fan to pick up an acoustic guitar in the first place..." NME (Magazine) (12/9/95, p.39) - 7 (out of 10) - "...as a demonstration of what can be done with a battered acoustic guitar, three chords and a beautifully tired, twisted reading of the truth, it has few peers." Entertainment Weekly (8/5/94, p.52) - "...presents our hero as an earnest young student of vernacular American music..." - Rating: B+ Pitchfork (Website) - "[I]t's his personal take on Americana....This is Beck, rustic..." Record Collector (magazine) (p.79) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Contrasting with MELLOW GOLD's hip-hop folk, OFITG pulled up Beck's traditional folk and blues roots....Just like the Delta bluesmen, Beck sees decay around every corner..."

Beck Hansen, the quintessential Gen X slacker, came up among the lo-fi ranks, pushing a blend of country blues, Dylan-inspired wordplay, punk, and hip-hop. His straight-out-of-the-gate 1994 smash, "Loser," made him a star seemingly overnight. Subsequent recordings found him alternately accumulating even more disparate influences in his "mess-thetic" approach (Prince, tropicalia, psychedelia) and scaling down for the occasional back-to-the-roots lo-fi album. He is recognized as one of the preeminent singer-songwriters of his generation.

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