Beck's ninth studio album, The Information, has been barred from the UK album chart because its bonus features - a DVD of homemade videos for each song and stickers which let fans design their own cover artwork - contravene chart rules.
The stickers are by-the-by, but the DVD is a grand idea for MTV types who like watching music, although the videos are a bit samey.
Gimmicks aside, it's an album that promises to hit the funkily eccentric heights of Odelay and Midnite Vultures, but doesn't provide the same underlying excellence.
There is some of Beck's brilliant best, such as Strange Apparition, Soldier Jane and the two UK bonus tracks. But the eclectic quality is diluted by too much boring electro-rap and abstract tangents.
Beck still has immense musical imagination, not least in his somewhat creative lyrics; he just needs to edit it all better.
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