Beck
Sea Change
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For $10.98

At night I’ve been falling asleep to Beck’s new album Sea Change. Then I realized how wonderful it was to listen to in the morning (or, well, when I woke up). Soon it was a mid afternoon album and then seemed like good background for the dusk. It went with overcast rainy days like rattails and the eighties, and sounded just as good when the sun shined down like a glowing façade of trust. By now you’ve probably got the hint that Sea Change is fantastic.

Sea Change is the first release from Beck in a few years, and it seems that during this time he has decided to become one hell of a singer/songwriter. From the opening track “The Golden Age,” you realize that this album is simply different. A simple acoustic guitar melody is soon joined by chimes, setting the tone for a completely subdued production. There is not one song resembling the “Devil’s Haircut” stylised white funk that we’ve come to expect from Beck. Instead we hear a contemplative journey that sounds like a torture to write lyrically, but is an absolute joy to listen to.

“Paper Tiger,” the disc’s second track is just as quiet, but a bit funkier. It contains a mean electric guitar, but the amp is turned down and it barely stands out. This is blended with a set of disco sounding string arrangements that makes this song, reminiscent of The Rolling Stones’s “Sway,” one of the more complex and soulful on the album.

However, it’s the album’s simplicity that makes it so accessible, effective, and in a way, complex. The album is stripped of lavishness and for the most part, electronics- it is a musical reflection on life and love in the folk tradition. In its subtleness, the album is actually incredibly musical with swirling strings, hypnotic acoustic and pedal steel guitars, rousing piano and honest and captivating lyrics. The words are introverted but at the same time relatable, the themes personal and often tortured, but elegant and even poetic. “Let all the laws of creation/tell a dead man how to die.” (“Guess I’m Doing Fine”) “We don’t have to worry/life goes where it does/faster than a bullet/from an empty gun (“Round the Bend”). These are just a few examples of the highly evocative lyrics on Sea Change.

The album’s nature seems downcast, but quite cathartic. Beck has captured the essence of emotional dependability and fragility inside us all, and was kind enough to include us in this beautiful purge. This might not be a best seller or much of a live crowd pleaser. It’s an obsolete folk meditation- risky, but Beck hits it out of the ballpark.

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