The Golden Age
Paper Tiger
Guess I'm Doing Fine
Lonesome Tears
Lost Cause
End Of The Day
It's All In Your Mind
Round The Bend
Already Dead
Sunday Sun
Little One
Side Of The Road
Frogtoon Music Album Info: Sea Change
Published: 06 Jun 2010, 23:30
Beck Has Always Been Known For His Ever-Changing Moods -- Particularly Since They Often Arrived One After Another On One Album Sometimes Within One Song -- Yet The Shift Between The Neon Glitz Of Midnite Vultures And The Lush Somber Sea Change Is Startling And Not Just Because It Finds Him In Full-On Singer/songwriter Mode Abandoning All Of The Postmodern Pranksterism Of Its Predecessor. What's Startling About Sea Change Is How It Brings Everything That's Run Beneath The Surface Of Beck's Music To The Forefront As If He's Unafraid To Not Just Reveal Emotions But To Elliptically Examine Them In This Wonderfully Melancholy Song Cycle. If On Most Albums Prior To This Beck's Music Was A Sonic Kaleidoscope -- Each Song Shifting Familiar And Forgotten Sounds Into Colorful Unpredictable Combinations -- This Discards Genre-Hopping In Favor Of Focus And The Concentration Pays Off Gloriously Resulting In Not Just His Best Album But One Of The Greatest Late-Night Brokenhearted Albums In Pop. This As Many Reviews And Promotional Interviews Have Noted Is Indeed A Breakup Album But It's Not A Bitter Listen It Has A Wearily Beautiful Sound A Comforting Consoling Sadness. His Words Are Often Evocative But Not Nearly As Evocative As The Music Itself Which Is Rooted Equally In Country-Rock Not Alt-Country Early-'70s Singer/songwriterism And Baroque British Psychedelia. With Producer Nigel Godrich Beck Has Created A Warm Enveloping Sound With His Acoustic Guitar Supported By Grand String Arrangements Straight Out Of Paul Buckmaster Eerie Harmonies And Gentle Keyboards Among Other Subtler Touches That Give This Record A Richness That Unveils More With Each Listen. Surely Some May Bemoan The Absence Of The Careening Free-Form Experimentalism Of Odelay But Beck's Gifts As A Songwriter Singer And Musician Have Never Been As Brilliant As They Are Here. As Sea Change Is Playing It Feels As If Beck Singing To You Alone Revealing Painful Intimate Secrets That Mirror Your Own. It's A Genuine Masterpiece In An Era With Too Damn Few Of Them.