When Beck Hansen first came on to the scene with his barrel full of ideas it appeared he could do no wrong. Yet when you're the coolest thing in rock music, sooner or later you will fall from grace. In Beck's case, one could say the downhill spiral began after the rightly revered 'Odelay' in 1996. Yet people often forget his excellent haunting folk-flavoured album 'Sea Change', either because it didn't sell so well or it offered very little for hip-hop fans to sick their teeth into. 'Guero' was the first attempt to return to the 'Odelay' years but latest record 'The Information' is probably the closest he has come to those times but with canny nods to the electronica scene.

It opens, quite surprisingly, with 'Elevator Music' which is reminiscent of a digitally-enhanced version of his first hit 'Loser'. 'Cellphone's Dead', the fine single, also pulls off the trick of recapturing his early greatness but with one eye always open for the future. It's basically a strong album on all levels and despite lasting over an hour long, the quality of songs is consistently highly with the percussion always crisp and thumping. Moreover, Beck himself is in fine voice throughout whether aggressive for 'Nausea' or gentle for 'New Round'. He also gives vent to his experimental side for the "difficult" '1000 BPM', the blissed-out 'Movie Theme' and the downright weird 'suite of 'The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton'. The jury has decided, Beck has officialy regained his "cool" status.