| "Chemtrails" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Beck | ||||
| from the album Modern Guilt | ||||
| B-side | "Vampire Voltage No. 6" | |||
| Released | June 22, 2008 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:39 | |||
| Label | DGC Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Beck Hansen | |||
| Producer(s) | Danger Mouse | |||
| Beck singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Chemtrails" is a 2008 single by American musician Beck. The song, taken from his eleventh studio album, Modern Guilt , was released digitally on June 22, 2008.
The artwork for the single uses a design based on Houndstooth patterning.
"Chemtrails" was premiered by Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1 on May 19, 2008. [1] The song was made available to stream from Beck's official website and his MySpace. [1] [2] The song was available to download on June 22, 2008, or a day later in the United States, as well as a pre-order of Modern Guilt. [3] [4] The song's title refers to the chemtrail conspiracy theory, as do the lyrics: "I can't believe/What we've seen outside/You and me/Watching the jets go by". [5]
The critical reception for "Chemtrails" was highly positive. Kitty Empire of The Observer compared the "beautiful" song to a clash between The Beatles and My Bloody Valentine. [6] USA Today featured the song on its weekly playlist, complimenting Beck's "eerie falsetto over slow-building industrialized Radiohead-like ambience." [7] Billboard said that "Beck's falsetto singing rides along a bouncing bassline and crashing drums, with Danger Mouse's trademark production touches filing [sic] the crannies." [1] Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal called it "the record's best psych-rock showing" and the song featured "a wicked drum exhibition" [8] The song was described as "trippy" by MTV News. [9] "Chemtrails" received high praise for "its woozy textures ... with Beck's distracted vocal and a busy drum track complementing each other perfectly." [10] James Lawrenson, writing for ClickMusic, said the song was "like a more electrified Sea Change , ambient and slightly sombre, but beautiful nonetheless." The review described the song's "synth washes and sparse instrumentation" as creating "an airy, atmospheric feel." [11]
As promotion for the album, limited edition copies of a "Chemtrails" 7" were distributed to independent record stores and were given to customers upon purchase of the album. The B-side is a song entitled "Vampire Voltage No. 6". Copies made in the UK were pressed on glow-in-the-dark white vinyl, while copies made for the US were pressed on standard black vinyl. [12]
In Italy, this song is used as the theme song to L'era glaciale ("The Ice Age", not to be confused with the film Ice Age ), a talk show hosted by Italian TV personality Daria Bignardi on Rai 2, which was aired between 20 March and 4 December 2009.
"Chemtrails" was likely influenced by Aphrodite's Child's song The Four Horsemen, which has a similar structure, [13]
Beck David Hansen, known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical collages of wide-ranging genres. He has musically encompassed folk, funk, soul, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia. He has released 14 studio albums, as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.
Odelay is the fifth studio album by American musician Beck, released on June 18, 1996, by DGC Records. The album featured several successful singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution", and peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard 200. As of July 2008, the album had sold 2.3 million copies in the United States, making Odelay Beck's most successful album to date. Since its release, the album has appeared in numerous publications' lists of the greatest of the 1990s and of all time.
Mutations is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Beck, released on November 3, 1998, by DGC Records. Though less commercially successful than the preceding Odelay, it won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
Sea Change is the eighth studio album by American musician Beck, released on September 24, 2002, by Geffen Records. Recorded over a two-month period in Los Angeles with producer Nigel Godrich, the album features themes of heartbreak and desolation, solitude, and loneliness. For the album, much of Beck's trademark cryptic and ironic lyrics were replaced by simpler, more sincere lyrical content. He also eschewed the heavy sampling of his previous albums for live instrumentation. Beck cited the breakup with his longtime girlfriend as the major influence on the album.
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The discography of Beck, an American rock musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and multi-instrumentalist, consists of 14 studio albums, one compilation album, one remix album, four extended plays (EPs) and 52 singles. With a pop art collage of musical styles, oblique and ironic lyrics, and postmodern arrangements incorporating samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects, Beck has been hailed by critics and the public throughout his musical career as being amongst the most creative and idiosyncratic musicians of 1990s and 2000s alternative rock.
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Vampire Weekend is the debut studio album by American rock band Vampire Weekend, released on January 29, 2008 by XL Recordings. The album was produced by band member Rostam Batmanglij, with mixing assistance from Jeff Curtin and Shane Stoneback. Released after a year of building internet buzz, the album showcased the band's unique hybrid of indie pop, chamber music, and Afropop influences.
Modern Guilt is the eleventh studio album by American musician Beck, released in 2008 by lliad Records The album was produced by Beck and Danger Mouse and features two contributions by Cat Power.
Discipline is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Janet Jackson. It was released on February 22, 2008 by Island Records. It is her only album released with the record label after her five-album deal with Virgin Records was fulfilled with the release of 20 Y.O. (2006). Jackson worked with producers such as Darkchild, Ne-Yo, Shea Taylor, Stargate, Johntá Austin, Jermaine Dupri, Tricky Stewart, and The-Dream on the album. Jackson's long-time producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis did not contribute to the project. The album was executive produced by Island Urban president Dupri and Jackson. The album experimented with the electropop, house, and dance-pop genres and also contained R&B and hip hop-oriented tracks.
Twilight: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the official soundtrack to Twilight, released on November 4, 2008.
Contra is the second studio album by the American indie pop band Vampire Weekend, produced by band member Rostam Batmanglij and released in January 2010 on XL Recordings. It was preceded by the 2009 singles "Horchata" and "Cousins."
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A most probably intentional homage to "The Four Horsemen".