The Way It Seems
By: Beck Hansen
Written by: Beck Hansen

Versions:
  1. The Way It Seems (2:45)
    Available on K Records 2.
    Credits
    Recorded at: Dub Narcotic
    Beck Hansen: Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
  2.  
 
Lyrics:
The Way It Seems [Version (a)]:

Last night I heard you were going
Going for to stay
Bound for some other shore
Let your garbage lay
And now you're running backwards
Right into your grief
Gathering your weapons
Rippin' 'em with your teeth
But that's so unexciting
And that's the way it seems
Sooner we'll be done for
Somewhere in between

Slick and dark and hungry
It's the only game in town
Gamble in a no-man's land
Rippin' faces down
The flames shooting outward
Everywhere you are
The temperature is a-blazing
Turning tricks and cards
And that's so unexciting
That's the way it seems
Sooner we'll be done for
Somewhere in between
 
The Song:

In the summer of 1994, Beck started to record a follow-up to One Foot In The Grave for K Records. "The Way It Seems" is an acoustic folk song from those sessions.

The track remained unknown until 2009. Anyone who ordered the Deluxe version of One Foot from beck.com was e-mailed this song as a thank you gift. It was stated that "The Way It Seems" was from the "unreleased follow up," and promised we'd find out more soon. This never happened.

This is the only, so far, song from the second K album to come out, or even surface. I could speculate on some other songs that may have been attempted from things we know were played live, but I'll wait. (I also believe a few things from these sessions may have been re-recorded for Mutations.)

Anyway, "The Way It Seems" is a really cool track. I'm unsure if that's just one acoustic guitar, or if there's an overdub on there. The bass notes are great though, and give the song a slightly darker tone. The lyrics portray someone leaving, "running backwards," to their past. Beck is observing them doing this, and calling them out on it. "You're going back to that?" he seems to be saying.