Beck is more like an avante-garde artist. He loves wordplay and imagery. He comes from a family of avante-garde artists (his mom was big in Andy Warhol’s social circle, for instance).
I think Beck just uses music as his ‘canvas’. Some songs have deep meaning (his album ‘Sea Change’, for example). Others are put together to evoke mood or imagery, and still others for rhythm and structure.
Some of the ideas and concepts in his music might have come from being raised a Scientologist. I’m not familiar enough with his music to say for sure, but considering how emmersed in Scientology the followers of it tend to get I wouldn’t be surprised.
He was quite close-lipped about that when he started out, but has since married another Scientologist and participated in public Scientology events.
If you’re looking for some of his music that isn’t as cryptic, I highly recommend his latest album “Sea Change.” It’s the perfect post-breakup album. It’s the album you listen to when you want to feel sad and alone.