Beck - 'Cell Phone's Dead' (Interscope) Released 09/10/06

Gigwise gets very worried when people start banging on about wanting to leave ‘a body of work behind them’. Ricky Gervais has been doing it a lot recently, presumably as a deflection tactic from the fact that Extras isn’t very funny at all. The people who actually leave a body of work behind them are the ones who never bang on about it. Which brings us to Beck. Not all his albums are classics – last year’s 'Guerro' wasn’t a particular high point for example – but when he pops off this mortal coil he’ll have left a back catalogue as eclectic as it is brilliant. The Nigel Godrich produced ‘Cell Phone’s Dead’ off upcoming album ‘The Information’ is another prime example, effortlessly switching between electro-funk and an entirely unrelated bit which cunning aludes to Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Bonnie And Clyde’.