By Ken Walker
It’s unanimous. Beck is one ever-present musical force. He dropped “Midnite Vultures” in 1999, and now, “Sea Change.” This album is sure to completely differ from the last LP the “loser” put out. He does this every time: switching from funk-electronic weirdness to folk sad alt-rock. What are we to think? Does he have multiple personalities? Or is it truthfully a hinting at a closet for this musical genius to hide in? Who knows. But “Sea Change” drops today, and my advance copy tells my ears to tell me they like what they hear.
With the 1994 possible one hit wonder track “Loser,” for which Mr. Hansen is famous, he stepped into the eye of the mainstream storm. It was a good step. It was a party song, a coffeeshop white-boy hero song, and it was about “un perdidor’s” perception of lost love. Funked up, of course… only his style.
So his switch now is funk-alt-rock to folk. And now on “Sea Change,” soft folk balladry recovers him from lost love. The opening track, “The Golden Age,” seems to be about letting love go and “let[ting] the golden age begin.”
The whole album resembles a road trip of tears. You can feel the car moving. There are discovering lyrics, hiding lyrics, sad lyrics and excellent acoustic guitars mixed with the softness of light electronic mixing. With complete production by Hansen and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Starsailor, xx6), the album is haunting while showing minimal teeth into a smile.
This album should definitely be in the running at Grammy time. The album’s overall sound is definitely reminiscent of Nick Drake- “Pink Moon” more than “Bryter Layter.” Yet, it still maintains an enormous amount of originality. So impressive, so captivating is the sleekness in Beck’s voice. This vocal chording has never been maximized on any Beck album to date since his beginning in 1994.
Beck’s father, David Campbell, plays keyboards on three tracks and does some co-production with Godrich. His keyboarding skills are magnificently dark and reek of the patented Nick Drake sound. Beck beckons his singing talent more than ever with sultry, sexy vibes of deep tones slighted with lyrics of pain.
CARDINAL GRADE: A
