Beck Aims to Keep Fans' "Idle Hands" Busy On New Album

For his new album, The Information, due out October 3rd, Beck has created a video for each song, which will be embedded with digital downloads of the tunes, and widely available for free on YouTube.com and elsewhere. It's part of the freak-folk forebearer's plan to help redefine the album for the digital age. "We're moving into time where the song and the imagery and video are all able to exist as one thing," he tells us. "It's not even technically an audio thing anymore, it's something else."

In addition, each physical copy of the album will come with a mostly blank cover and, inside, a sheet of stickers (each disc will have one of four possible sheets) so each owner can create his or her own album art. "We're giving people an assignment," Beck says. "It's something to do with their idle hands while they listen to music so they don't get into trouble, just doing our part."

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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