What an inspired project! This is exactly the thing that artists should be doing for themselves and their fans. And the fact that Leonard Cohen's Songs of Leonard Cohen was chosen on the heels of Velvet Underground & Nico says a lot about the minds at work here (they have good taste). Here's what Beck or whoever writes for the Beck's Record Club section of the website had to say about album choice number 2:
Here is the first track from Record Club No. 2. This time around the group includes Devendra Banhart, Ben, Andrew and Matt from MGMT, Andrew from Wolfmother, Binki from Little Joy, and Brian and Bram returning from the first Record Club. For those new to the Record Club, it is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day. An album is chosen to be reinterpreted and used as a framework. Nothing rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track is put up here once a week. As you will hear, some of the songs are rough renditions, often first takes documenting what happened over the course of a day. There is no intention to 'add to' the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens. And those who aren't familiar with the albums in question will hopefully look for the songs in their definitive versions. 'Songs Of Leonard Cohen' by Leonard Cohen was chosen by Andrew from MGMT. For those interested, our close second choice was Ace Of Base, which we'll keep on the list for next time.