Beck: "Mutations" (Geffen)

Even when he's mucking about in the dirt, Beck Hansen can still mine rich musical seams, and anyone expecting little more than cast-off country ditties will be pleasantly surprised. Mutations is apparently something to keep the pot boiling until his next meisterwerk, but it accurately defines Beck's current Lone Star state of mind.

Recorded in a two-week period in spring this year, using Beck's regular touring band, Mutations is noticeably lacking in hip-hop rhythms, break-beats and samples and plainly heavy on the folk, country and bossa nova. The two-turntables-and-a-microphone formula has been replaced by acoustic guitars, upright bass, trombone, the odd harpsichord and a dash of synth just to scare the chickens. Unsurprisingly, Beck wears the old-fashioned approach well, settling into the rootsy arrangements like a native and without once backtracking into a retro bear-trap. Cold Brains, Nobody's Fault but my Own and Bottle of Blues are redolent of a grungy Guthrie or a dirt-encrusted Dylan, but Beck shows too many flashes of originality to be overshadowed by the acoustic giants of the past. You could call this Beck's Ghost of Tom Joad, except that not even Springsteen could come up with such weirdcore country tunes as Lazy Flies, Dead Melodies and the absolutely bonkers Diamond Bollocks.

Beat-driven fans might get impatient at the album's lazy canter, but the rest of us will be happy that Beck's genius is still wild and free.