File this one away under “Too Much Information.” I just spent the last two hours in my basement, listening to Beck’s Guero, reading a book called Fables of Fact: The New Journalism as New Fiction, and shaking my ass. I stopped dancing the day I stopped smoking pot, which was quite a while ago. Like, in the early-90s. Not that that thing I would do while standing next to 500 other people at a Widespread Panic show could properly be called “dancing.” It was more of close your eyes, shake your head, and rock on both knees kind of thing. But you get my point.
So, tonight I spent two hours reading . . . while dancing . . . kind of. Which is a pretty odd thing to find oneself doing, I can promise you. And quite unexpected. Which says something for the ass-shakingness of Guero. There are some nice Sea Change-like melodies here, but this album is all about the beats. So much so, in fact, that it feels like the Dust Brothers are due for a co-credit or something. Anyway, “Missing” won Song of the Moment honors in a close race with “Black Tambourine” and “Hell Yes,” both of which, it must be said, are even more ass-shaking than “Missing” but not quite as perfect. All three sound even better in multi-channel.