What year is this anyway? Beck [ tickets ]'s new album, "The Information," sounds like a holdover from 1994, the year his ahead-of-the-curve breakthrough--you know, the one with "Loser"--hit the airwaves. For better or worse, "The Information," Beck's seventh album, takes us back to the future.

Combine the tongue-in-cheek, stream-of-consciousness raps of "Mellow Gold" with the smart songcraft of "Odelay" and what you get is "The Information." Lead track "Elevator Music" features such couplets as "Gutbucket and a bottle of paint/It's like the schoolhouse lights will never turn on again/'Til the bottom wears off on these high-heeled boots." Later, Beck might be talking about Bush's "War on Terror" when he soft raps, "Infidels swallowed/In a vanishing point/Ammunition souls shooting/Holes in the ozone/Widows tears/Washing a soldier's bones." Clearly, he still has a penchant for WTF lyrics.

But this is 2006 and Beck has grown, if not in height, certainly in maturity. In place of the such whack-job tracks as "Soul Suckin' Jerk," the lithe boy wonder offers moody masterpieces like "We Dance Alone" and "Soldier Jane." With their funky drum-machine backbones and eerie synth touches, the songs bury Beck's vocal about as deep as the wind-and-Velcro sound effects, making for a truly evocative listen.

Produced by Nigel Goodrich, "The Information" is a cohesive disc with rhythms and bass lines re-emerging by album's end on the wondering, wandering 10-and-a-half minute "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton." While artsy and experimental, it does a good job of sealing the deal, confirming that all those cut-and-paste jobs you just listened to weren't nearly as spontaneous as they sounded.

"The Information" ranks with Beck's best efforts. That it comes just one year after "Guero" only solidifies his place in the alt-pop pantheon--even if it sounds like 1994 all over again. When you're ahead of your time, you can do that sort of thing.