90's Hit Parade #33

Beck - Mixed Bizness

It's difficult to pick a song off Midnight Vultures, Beck's "sex album." Side one especially is solid killer tracks, but I think this disco dancefloor burner stands out even in the crowded pack, and it's a standard on my party mixes. Midnight Vultures is maybe to Prince what Ziggy Stardust is to the Stones: all those sexy moves get filtered through Beck's Gen X irony machine, so you basically get Prince surrounded by air quotes. Beck's lyrics are as profoundly silly as they were on "Loser": lines like "You make a garbage man scream" and "I wanna defy the logic of all sex laws" and "She looks so Israeli" and some shit about Zankou Chicken. It's all about pairing up and gettin' busy, and throughout the album Beck stays busy pairing up peaches with cream, milk with honey, nicotine with gravy and, here, bizness with pleasure. Freaks flock together, baby! And local shopping malls receive anonymous calls (I don't even know what that means, I just love that line)!