On Beck Album, Pop Sets an Ironist Free
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22 Friday Lifestyle | FEATURES Friday, October 13, 2017 Beyonce On Beck album, pop charity song sets an ironist free If there’s a word to sum up Beck’s musical style, ‘It’s like, wow!’ ‘Mi Gente’ it is eclecticism. Over two decades he has Beck’s poetic surrealism has not completely become an alternative rock icon by swerving vanished. He still sings of cruising the city “in the among genres, from folk to hip-hop to the mari- typical noise with the suntan ellipse” and spot- achi tunes he heard in the streets of Los ting the “girl in a bikini with a Lamborghini Shih dethrones Angeles. Yet his underlying thread was irony. Tzu.” But the Beck of “Colors” is one of euphoria Besides two albums that made pit-stops for rather than irony. “It’s like, wow! It’s like, right somber self-reflection, Beck has flummoxed now!” he sings on “Wow.” If not always with his ‘Despacito’ three generations of listeners with fantastical lyricism, Beck on “Colors” keeps his complexity wordplay, creating a lyrical universe in which in as a composer. The pop production is packed Beyonce’s Spanish-language remix of “Mi the time of chimpanzees he was a monkey, and with multiple layers, with serpentine counter- Gente” for hurricane relief opened in which Satan gave him (at separate times) a melodies and seamless transitions among stylistic Wednesday on top of the US Latin song taco and a haircut. influences. chart, finally dethroning the global mega-hit For his 10th studio album, “Colors,” released “I’m So Free,” a track that sounds destined to “Despacito.” “Mi Gente,” which Colombian on Friday, Beck switched gears again. But this become a live crowd-pleaser, opens with a pop reggaeton star J Balvin created from the “Despacito”-led by Puerto Rican star Luis time, he has stitched together the closest he has beat before an anthemic chorus that explodes African dance rhythms of French DJ Willy Fonsi with rapper Daddy Yankee, and later come to a straightforward pop album. “Colors” with Nirvana-like guitars. “Dear Life” builds off a William, had lingered for 11 weeks at number with a contribution by Justin Bieber-spent 35 is Beck’s follow-up to 2014’s “Morning Phase,” jazzy piano melody before more textured pop two on the Billboard Latin song chart under- weeks on top of the chart. It was the second one of his career’s two melancholic turns. rhythms. The title track on “Colors” brings neath the colossus of “Despacito.” longest reign ever, trailing Enrique Iglesias’ “Morning Phase” won the Grammy for Album of together a forest of synthpop effects, while “Mi Gente” finally reached the top spot for “Bailando” which topped the chart for 41 the Year, perplexing Beck as well as much of the “Wow” is driven by a gritty trap beat. the week through October 5 in the track’s weeks. “Despacito” earlier also made history music industry as he faced much better-selling Beck’s closest-sounding previous venture new version starring Beyonce, who sings par- by tying the record for most weeks at number artists including Beyonce. was 1999’s “Midnite Vultures,” a playful adapta- tially in Spanish in her first music since giving one of the mainstream Hot 100 chart of all While “Morning Phase” was stripped-back tion of Prince-inspired funk that had marked his birth to twins in June. Beyonce said that all songs in the United States, ruling for 16 and lonesome, “Colors,” true to its name, is follow-up to “Odelay,” the album that defined his proceeds of the remix of “Mi Gente,” which weeks. “Mi Gente” jumped to number three about vividness. And the 47-year-old Beck feels quirkiness and made him a hipster hero. Beck means “My People,” would support victims of on the Hot 100 with Beyonce, but breakout liberated. “I’m so free!” Beck exclaims in a song had announced that his latest album would come the trio of powerful hurricanes that have rav- rap star Cardi B held firm at number one with of the same name in a theme that comes up out in October 2016, but held “Colors” for a full aged the Caribbean and southern United “Bodak Yellow.”—AFP repeatedly on “Colors.” “The way that I walk is year without explanation.—AFP States. up to me now,” he explains. Bikini power: Japan’s lady body builders smashing stereotypes Glistening with sweat, Satoko Yamanouchi’s biceps ripple and the perfect body.” veins in her neck throb as if about to pop as she strikes a fearsome Women’s bodybuilding is a serious business. The oldest com- pose at the Japan bodybuilding championships. An hour later, the petitor at the Japan championships, 64-year-old Mariko pint-sized Nagoya housewife is close to tears after narrowly failing Takamatsu, stormed off after failing to make the top 12. The eventu- to retain her title from a field of 34 bronzed and impressively buff al winner, Megumi Sawada, struck a series of eye-popping poses ladies, most of them in their fifties. “I was pathetic!” the 56-year- to the theme tune of Godzilla, stunning Yamanouchi to take the title. old Yamanouchi told AFP backstage at the close of the event earlier “It’s unbelievable I’ve won,” gasped the 56-year-old gym instruc- this week, sporting a skimpy gold bikini. tor, who used to compete in secret to avoid upsetting her mother. “A silver medal means nothing to me,” sniffed the sinewy ex- “I want to create the kind of body that stops people in the champ, who stands just 1.58 meters tall and weighs 50 kilo- street,” laughed Sawada, sporting a bob hairstyle and silver nail grams. “It just means you’re the best loser.” A self-confessed polish. “I don’t care what people think-you can express feminine gym rat, Yamanouchi is the poster girl for Japan’s growing num- beauty with this kind of body.” ber of female bodybuilders, helping break In this picture, Japanese trainer and champion Masashi Suzuki, right, down gender stereotypes in a country Horsemeat for breakfast helps bodybuilder Yuri Yasui during a workout session at a gym in obsessed with the “kawaii” (cute) fluffi- Other bodybuilding sub-genres have Tokyo. ness of its ubiquitous pop culture. sprung up in Japan, including “bikini fit- “I want to help change perceptions so A silver medal ness”-a category that has turned Yuri that more people can appreciate the Yasui into a magazine cover girl. A two- beauty of a muscular woman,” said the means time Japan champion, the statuesque 33- five-time national champion after a pun- nothing to me year-old is another who caught the ishing two-hour workout a week before workout bug after initially wanting to lose the competition. “When I tell people I’m weight. “When I started training serious- a bodybuilder, it freaks them out,” added ly, my parents were dead against it-even Yamanouchi, who became hooked on the sport in her late forties my friends were,” said Yasui, a bank employee from Nagoya, a city after looking for a way to keep fit. “My husband didn’t like it southwest of Tokyo, who won her first national title less than a year when I started either, his wife wearing a bikini in public, but he after taking up the sport. came around.” “They didn’t want me up there in front of strangers in a bikini flashing my bottom.” “At long last women are starting to work out Regular housewife regularly, but Japanese men still don’t really accept muscle-bound The number of bodybuilders registered with Japan’s national women,” added Yasui after lifting weights at a Tokyo gym. “It’s federation has almost doubled over the past six years to around important to change attitudes. The way to a feminine body-getting 3,000, with women making up 10 percent as part of a nationwide that tiny waist and a round bum-is by building muscle.”—AFP fitness boom, officials said. In ageing Japan, female bodybuilding is dominated by women in their forties and fifties, as many usually only start after their children have grown up. Yamanouchi, who takes around 10 different supplements a day to boost muscle growth and aid recovery, insists she knows where to draw the line, despite her bulging physique. “I don’t want to look Yasui eats horsemeat for breakfast and lunch to help keep her like the Hulk,” she said, taking a gulp of protein shake. “I want to body fat low and models her striking figure on an American femi- look beautiful and keep my femininity. I just don’t feel like a regular nist icon. “Ever since I was at college, I adored Wonder Woman,” In this picture, Japanese bodybuilder Yuri Yasui works out at a gym in housewife,” added Yamanouchi. “I’m always striving to create the said the 1.73 meter tall Yasui, who even wears a star-spangled biki- Tokyo. — AFP photos.