Album: Morning Phase
It's been six years since Beck's last studio album, 08's Modern Guilt, and while the man has continued recording and most recently released some one-off singles here and there, as well as some side projects, we haven't had a new album since Guilt which was the last entry in his contract with Interscope records. Until now.
Morning Phase, to be released at the end of February, will be Beck's twelfth album and a supposed "companion piece" to 2002's melancholy break-up album Sea Change. From the start you'll hear the absence of hip-hop beats and electronic elements, even the garage rock bop of Modern Guilt. The folky-acoustic sound, mixed with a warm touch of psychedelia, is once again present on Morning Phase as on Change, one of his most acclaimed albums. The one pointed difference is the sad heartache of Sea Change has been replaced with what Morning Phase's press release describes as "infectious optimism." Regardless, it's pretty beautiful sounding.
"Blue Moon," the first single, with obtuse lyrics about being "cut down to size" and being left alone sure don't sound infectiously optimistic... but the music has a quiet uplift to it... I've been quite enjoying it over the last couple weeks. I've only just recently gotten to hear the album and like Sea Change does have a consistent tone throughout and does sound, as the title suggest, great in the early morning. It's a new dawn record, and the perfect re-inroduction to the once very prolific 90s artist.
Morning Phase is the first of two albums promised for this year from Beck whom bassist and frequent collaborator Justin-Meldal-Johnsen has commented has "three-to-four albums worth" of new material he's recorded since Modern Guilt.
Enjoy.
Blue Moon
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