• Record Label: DGC
  • Release Date: Nov 16, 1999
Metascore
83

Universal acclaim - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 19
  2. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. As musically dazzling as Midnite Vultures often is, the one criticism that can be still levelled at Beck is that his songs remain strangely soulless, failing to ever really grip the emotions or stir the soul.
  2. He's given us the year's most relentless gas--laughing or otherwise--of a party album.
  3. It's pretty much just a silly, goofy, fun record.
  4. Musically, Midnite Vultures is filled with wonderful little quirks, but these are undercut by the sneaking suspicion that for all the ingenuity, it's just a hipster joke.
  5. Narrower in scope than 'Odelay' but more immediate in impact, it's clearly been conceived as an accompaniment to our hedonistic habit of choice, the last great party album of the millennium.
  6. 80
    Unlike Odelay, the mix-and-match pastiche of Midnite Vultures doesn't show its seams.
  7. After the acerbic, introspective detour of Mutations, Mr. Hansen has decided it's time to get his freak on.
  8. Midnite Vultues kind of sounds like an album Prince would have made if he were more interested in being a geek than carressing his own ego.
  9. 100
    Beck's best when he's tweaking music he has a genuine interest in, giving new humor and affection to his nasty grooves.
  10. For all Beck lifts from the Seventies, the album never sounds like a period piece; there's always something extra in the mix, stray elements that are both goofy and strangely apropos.
  11. It's a pastiche festival that works in the interest of groove every bit as hard as it does for knowingness and yuks.
  12. His most consistent and playful album yet.
  13. An entertainingly excessive album, its libidinous funk mosaic finds Beck coming on like a master of ceremonies overseeing a sci-fi orgy.
  14. From start to finish, "Midnite Vultures" is a total party romp of an album.
  15. He's got the beat rate up and lots of faux funk happening.
  16. Midnite Vultures is the album of a great entertainer, not a great artist.
  17. The startling musical variety amplifies the fact that no matter how aloof, how diffident, how cartoon Beck might be, he's so extravagantly talented that he's already lapped everyone else on that strength alone.
  18. 90
    Think of this sultry record as the night to Odelay's day.
  19. This album's not a joke. It's too damn good.
User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 66 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 60 out of 66
  2. Negative: 4 out of 66
  1. Sep 5, 2010
    10
    the 3 modern albums that really do it for me: Radiohead-Kid Athe 3 modern albums that really do it for me: Radiohead-Kid A Mr. Bungle-California Beck-Midnight Vultures
    Seriously, it doesn't get much better than this.
    Full Review »
  2. Jan 22, 2012
    10
    This album is full of ..... awesomeness
  3. Jul 17, 2018
    9
    Too much better produced than classic Odelay, and incredible as it, even more bizarre and with a bigger boiler of music styles, such asToo much better produced than classic Odelay, and incredible as it, even more bizarre and with a bigger boiler of music styles, such as electro, funk, folk, rock, hip-hop and principally black music, for this reason Midnite Vultures is the Beck's blackest album. Creative and strange Beck's lyrics still here and he even risk higher vocal notes, which can sometimes sound a little bit irritant but not making music sounds worse. This one still sounds amazing with everything which makes Beck Hansen unique and innovating. Full Review »