In 2012 Beck Hansen released one of the most unusual modern albums - an illustrated collection of sheet music entitled 'Song Reader'. He'd been working on the idea since 2004, and when the artifact was released none of the twenty songs could be heard by anyone unless they could read music and play an instrument. Complete with full-colour art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case, 'Song Reader' was an experiment in what an album could be at the end of 2012. The idea behind the release was that Beck hoped that enterprising musicians would record their own versions, and scores of them have done just that, uploading them to Youtube and Soundcloud, as well as to Beck's Song Reader website. In July 2014 the 'Warby Parker Presents Beck Song Reader' album was released, which featured studio recordings of the twenty tunes as interpreted by Jack White, Jack Black, Jeff Tweedy, Fun., Norah Jones, David Johansen and many more, as well as one song being performed by Beck himself. This followed a live concert the previous year at the Barbican Centre in London, which involved a huge cast of more than forty players, including Jarvis Cocker, Franz Ferdinand and Beth Orton, and the handsomely realised performances were regarded as a great success. Beck has performed a few of the songs himself over the years, and these have been collected together, alongside a few other live performances, by Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist in an attempt to construct a 'Song Reader' album by Beck that you could actually listen to, although he could only locate ten of the songs for his project. I've gone down a different route for this post, which is in line with Beck's original vision for the release, and I've trawled Youtube and Soundcloud to find what I think are the best rock versions of the songs. There are a few bands who have taken the project very seriously, with The Song Preservation Society, Jason Crosby and The Jehnny Dopps covering at least five or six of the songs, and The Portland Cello Project have recorded a whole album, while other Youtubers have picked just one song and made an outstanding job of it. I've tried to pick bands and artists that have performed the songs in a similar style, so that the album flows as if it's done by one band, and I'm sure that fans of Beck will appreciate the loving care that these artists have taken with his songs. I've also included a folder of the full-colour art which accompanied each piece of sheet music.
Track listing
01 Don't Act Like Your Heart Isn't Hard (Song Preservation Society)
02 I'm Down (Jerry Borge)
03 Saint Dude (Kurt Anderson & Studio 360)
04 Do We? We Do (Benedikt Band)
05 Eyes That Say I Love You (Milktooth)
06 Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings (Bigmedicinefilms)
07 Please Leave A Light On When You Go (Song Preservation Society)
08 Sorry (Song Preservation Society)
09 Old Shanghai (Zoo Pilot)
10 Rough On Rats (Jason Crosby And Friends)
11 Just Noise (Song Preservation Society)
12 We All Wear Cloaks (The Jehnny Dopps)
13 Mutilation Rag (Jason Crosby)
14 Heaven's Ladder (Jason Crosby And Friends)
15 Why Did You Make Me Care? (Jason Crosby And Friends)
16 America, Here's My Boy (Paul Lambeek)
17 The Wolf Is On The Hill (Song Preservation Society)
18 Title Of This Song (The Jehnny Dopps)
19 The Last Polka (Discombobulator)
20 Last Night You Were A Dream (The School Of Rock)
