Simple song, but the melodies are right, the attention to sound in every corner of the spectrum is outstanding.

This whole album, The Information, was a formal deviation for Beck, who typically loved sprawling song arrangements that morphed and morphed.

The Information instead kept song structures minimal, relying mainly on verses and choruses, maybe with brief pre-chorus cues serving as transitions. Bridges are rare. In their place, as in "Soldier Jane," after the second chorus, the developments are instrumental interludes, windows of thought, opportunities for painting in sound.

The songs were also generally darker-sounding than usual too. "Soldier Jane" moves through a universe of distant stars, encountering choruses of nebulous beauty but passing through stoically. The lyrics address a soul who Beck advises, "Take your heart out of the shell. Throw it away."

As he matures, Beck's silliness has become much more perceptive, and he no longer fears adding a sense of right and wrong in his points. He is keenly aware that people are keenly aware of his Scientologist upbringing, and he seems determined to sneak the wisdom he has learned from that controversial system into his usual, brilliant formulations. He seems to be careful not to buy into everything Scientology is, but he also knows that whatever it is, he has learned some things of value from it. He is confident that his insight and its influences are valid, that they have guided him to become one of the great artists to ever live, one who, as he grows older, is less shy to assert this status of himself.