While Beck's earlier work (who can look at Odelay and not say "masterpiece?") was brilliant in a raw way, I think he's gotten more refined and yet has developed more depth over the years. I totally fell in love with Guero and wondered if he could keep the pace going. To my surprise, I like parts of The Information even better. It's more techno, which I like, and yes, darker. What I get out of this CD is a love/hate affair with technology & the alienation it brings to our lives. We can cross the world in seconds thanks to the net, and yet we are more distant, isolating within ourselves. This is a CD for the current day...it's wired, and so are we. And there's no going back.

First let me say that Beck's music and video creations are clearly the most advanced artistic expressions in rock, IMO. I'm the biggest Fan of Mr. Hansen in the Universe, and I will *automatically* Buy His Product. BUT the packaging on this "deluxe edition" is truly a train wreck, and *those about to buy* should know about this up front, to avoid disappointment. The outer box is really flimsy cardboard; it's difficult to open and I put a crease in my copy on the very first opening. This packaging is designed to fall to pieces, which makes the sticker aspect even more comical, like I'm really going to mess with this stuff. The two cds and one expanded dvd are all in cardboard slip cases, and the cases are sized wrong, it's really hard to even get the disks out of the covers! Also included is a lyrics booklet and a blank graph-paper booklet for presumed Art Fun. The four sets of stickers satisfy the curiosity about what graphics were in the other three editions (besides the one copy I bought) of the original release of the album. This package is a HUGE step down from the deluxe hardbound book edition of "Guero" , unfortunately. It really looks cheap and destined for disposability. Perhaps that was part of the aesthetic, who knows. This is another case of burning copies of all the disks and filing the fragile original edition away, rarely to be touched. Of course the music is all that matters anyway; Mr. Hansen recently mentioned on NPR that doing this kind of packaging should make the album interesting and attractive to obtain rather than just downloading the music. I don't think this album's packaging succeeds in achieving this goal.

I felt OK writing a review on release day because Beck was leaking videos and other new tracks on his myspace page for a month or two before. I appreciated that and because of it, I must admit that I cannot remember the last time I was so eager for an album to come out. That being said, I definitely have favorites already. They include:

"Elevator Music" - very danceable tune, should have been the 1st single.

"Soldier Jane" - constant head bobbing, (important for me after Guerolito) definitely has some psychedelic qualities; I like the synths here.

"Dark Star" - I have never done acid, but the media has convinced me it must be something like this. Cool song and by far the best video on the DVD. It is as if Stanley Kubrick directed the video laced to early 80s underground beats. One person commented that Beck resembles Willy Wonka a bit here.

"We Dance Alone" - I just added this one because it caught on with me after a while. This is probably a song that showcases Beck's eclecticism more than any other, many different things going on here.

"No complaints" - Very catchy; one of the most stripped down tracks on the album, perfect for the MP3 player, walking outside. Great lyrics.

"The Information" - The title track has a hard bass beat and is solid overall.

The last song is a montage of a couple different tracks, focusing on change. This album was marketed different from the others; Beck is telling us the music is changing. Example: I went out and bought it rather than downloading this . . . Why?

Partly because of the DVD that comes with the album, partly the releases on myspace. Brilliant marketing focusing more on the album as a package. And I'm still split on rating it vs. Guero. Even though there were some tracks I could do without, (e.g. - Motorcade) when rating this album you have to keep in mind that Beck made a video for every song. Has anyone done that before??? And then NOT charge us a lot for it? At well under $15 here, this is a bargain for an album with 15 tracks and 15 videos on DVD.

I could go on about the stickers, but I won't. Beck has attempted something different and I liked it, hope you do too. Let's watch if the rest of the music industry follows suit.

For a video-starved guy like me, the idea to release a CD with an accompanying DVD that contains a video for every song was sheer brilliance. Truthfully, I'm surprised it took this long for a big-named artist to try something like this. Then again, if anyone has the ingenuity to pull off such an amazing audio/video spectacle on disc(s), Beck is the musician.

I love everything about "The Information," both the CD and the DVD. There's plenty to dance to here, lots of tunes to sing along with, and some much more laid-back fare. In fact, the tail end of the disk becomes a tad more somber and uneven, but the music still kills. "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton" reveals itself as murkier music for the diehards at 2 a.m. and counting. Still, it's great stuff until everything dissolves into a mesh of ethereal synth and a few incomprehensible voices meant to confuse; bizarre, to be sure, but also a fitting end to an album so rich in musical depth.

This masterful CD is littered with cool hip-hop dance tracks like "Elevator Music, "1000BPM" and "Nausea," which sit next to songs that mingle hip-hop and pop-rock such as "Think I'm in Love" and "No Complaints," two playful-sounding tunes that make not liking Beck's music impossible. "Strange Apparition" has a lively country-western sound, complete with jumping piano and a suitably weird video to match. Everything on this album is smooth and instantly catchy, often danceable. The dance tracks have that big bass thump, a crisp beat and snappy drums that could get anybody moving. There are also sublime songs like "Soldier Jane" that ooze atmosphere and manage transcendence. Along those lines, "Movie Theme" is an especially moving track, perhaps the best on the album. It has a buzzing, slow-synth groove that is infectious but a little sad. The video is nothing but an electric green haze of Beck's staid face shown in a row, as if a synthetic, twisted cloning went severely bad but left us great music. His voice on the track is hardly above a murmur, making the words barely audible. When he sighs toward the end of the song, you want to sigh along with him, and maybe even shed a tear or two.

Beck's droning voice belies the exciting array of noises that are par for the course within his well-rounded music. And his demeanor onscreen is no less understated than his endearing vocals. The DVD portion of "The Information" is chock-full of colorful low-fi videos (often with smooshy coloring and purposely grainy quality) that feature the calm Beck as the ever-present focus, amid a blur of bizarre men and women of all ethnicities performing a myriad of activities in odd clothing. Few bodily movements are spared in these videos: Kung Fu guys, little girls dancing, bears playing the drums, cars driving by, women exercising, jousting, costumes galore, retro graphics that flash incessantly -- you name it, every type of music-video chic is covered. Beck's sound might be modern, but his video aesthetic is pure retro, from slick 1970s suits, to "keytars," to boom boxes that his minion musicians cradle in their arms. So in a way, Beck pushes boundaries in an equally forward-thinking and nostalgic manner. There's no real theme to his videos, except to behave beautifully free and act weird once "Action!" is shouted. Sometimes people just stand around looking bored, which is cool too. Everything looks like it was filmed in the same house. Beck often has a bored, dazed look about him, but after hearing this CD and seeing his videos, you realize the guy is completely in control of what he's doing. How cool is it that the diverse songs on "The Information" also get a varied set of accompanying videos?

Who's as consistently interesting (read:unexpected) that Mr. Beck Hansen? That's right, nobody. A few albums in and he's still the most interesting pop musician on the scene. I only just picked this CD up and it's been on heavy rotation for me ever since. Each listen I pick up some nuance I missed the previous time. Trust me, grab the car keys, get on iTunes, whatever your method, just get this music into your head. Now.