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Modern Guilt
Participated by Beck
Studio : Interscope Records
by Interscope Records
Release Date : 2008-07-08
Publisher : Interscope Records
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
EAN : 0602517754416
UPC : 602517754416
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 71 reviews)
List Price : $13.98
Our Price : $7.83
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Dvd-books.com |
Beck's new album Modern Guilt, produced with Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, will be released July 8, 2008.
The new album contains 10 new songs, and with the exception of last year's Grammy-nominated, digital-only single "Timebomb", Modern Guilt is the first new material Beck has written since the prolific stretch that produced 2005's platinum Guero and 2006's universally acclaimed The Information.
Modern Guilt is a tightly assembled group of songs that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off the cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor. Musically, the album's ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse's shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism and orchestration.
Beck is about to embark on a tour of the UK and Europe, followed by a number of US headline and festival appearances, culminating in Beck's biggest hometown headline show to date, September 20, 2008 at the Hollywood Bowl. Beck Photos |
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guilt made modern?!? |
Being a huge admirer of producer Danger Mouse's work (Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse) and a advent Beck fan, I was absolutely flabbergasted when I heard the two would be collaborating. I was even more amazed once the revelation actually came about. Boasting ten songs of the most highly "beck-tacular", "Modern Guilt" reveals Beck at one of his most thoughtfully confessing moments. Full of references (positive ones, if I may add) to global warming, wisdom and even tackling the actuality of Deity, the album feels a little less down and more compelled. Danger Mouse's production is top-notch; familiar to his previous work but re-animated and amplified by following Beck's direction. A touching and personal record, "Modern Guilt" may not be beck at his best, but it is beck acknowledging that he can be better, not just as a musician but as a person as well.
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The Slump Continues |
Beck's musical slump continues. It's really a tragedy because he was on such a prolific ride with every album he released from 1994 and 1996's modern classics "Mellow Gold" and "Odelay," respectively, to 1998's stunning off-roader "Mutations," on to 1999's eclectic grower "Midnite Vultures," and finally to his career's pinnacle, 2002's depressingly beautiful "Sea Change". The gossip around "Sea Change" was the love of his life broke his heart and out came his most raw, honest and ingenious work of art. It also drained him of everything he had left. Since then, Beck has struggled to create anything that can touch the greatness of any of his previous work.
This year's "Modern Guilt" continues to see the decline of Beck and it really saddens me. I saw Beck on his "Sea Change" tour at Wolf Trap and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. He was ON and his band really helped carry him. Fast-forward a few years later to 2005's "Guero" tour at The Patriot Center and it was like night and day. Beck could barely perform the last half of his set. He didn't even MOVE. His stage hands had to switch his guitars on and off him, step on his effects pedals for him, and basically act as his crutch just to get him through. There was no encore which is unheard of for a headliner. That's the feeling and impression I get with Beck's latest albums and now with "Modern Guilt"...he's just barely getting by and simply fulfilling his contractual obligations.
Not that there aren't some diamonds in the rough here (certainly not his best songs ever, but they're relatively good), such as "Orphans," "Gamma Ray" and title track "Modern Guilt," but the bus stops there. The remaining seven tracks meander off into cruise control, letting producer DJ Danger Mouse seemingly take full control thereby giving "Modern Guilt" a disappointingly un-Beck feel. What is the Beck feel you ask? Listen to the range of experimentation going on with every album before "Guero": boldly diving into multiple genres with a keen ear for melody, funk, folk, and mischievousness. Beck doesn't seem to be having fun anymore, not that "Sea Change" was a fun album...far from it, but it had soul. That's what's lacking from post-Sea Change Beck for me and I really want him back. Snap out of it, buddy. Please.
Highlight tracks: 1) Orphans, 2) Gamma Ray, and 4) Modern Guilt |
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The Future Sound of Rock |
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The word "modern" in the title is fitting for this album cause I think Beck has created a new style in rock music which is new and a style that I percieve will try to be duplicated again and again . The album is just a little over 30 minutes, but I don' t want to focus on its length, but rather its unique style and sound. Songs like Replica, Chemtrials, Walls, and Gamma Rays sound like songs well ahead of their time. Modern Guilt somewhat reminds me of The Velvet Underground and Nico album from the 60's which created a unique sound and feel in the world of rock which greatly influenced bands and artist for years. Beck is one of those artist which seems to always be outside of the mainstream rock music tread but is always setting a new pace for others to follow. Modern Guilt is a great album, even though I don't think its as soild as Guero, its still one of his best albums and dosn't sound like a duplicate of any of his past albums, but a new sound worth checking out. |
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Beck's Experiments Leave Mixed Ruselts Sometimes |
Seems a very mixed CD to me. I would have put the tracks In another progression. But does have a few awesome tracks. I had an Idea what to expect and I should never do that with Beck he changes too much.
Another reason for 3 Instead of 4 stars Is the CD Is very short like 35 minutes. Should be EP priced almost. No not almost 1 less song and It's an EP |
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Beck evolves on newest album to create 'Modern' masterpiece |
Musical chameleon Beck released his latest album, "Modern Guilt," on his 38th birthday and the songs found therein display an artist far removed from the 23-year-old Los Angeles slacker who was telling us he was 'un perdedor' on "Mellow Gold," his 1994 breakthrough release. This disc finds Mr. Hansen truly exploring the heavy themes of death and personal reflection for the first time, and the results are nothing short of stellar. Middle age, it seems, has its benefits.
Beck tried this feat, the "serious record," two years ago on 2006's "The Information," but the message was pretty much lost to critics and fans, who thought the filtered-through-a-ColecoVision beats and lyrics about cellular phones were more post-apocalyptic and self-referential than anything else. He gets straight to the point this time around, with 10 concise tracks, a 34-minute runtime and not an ounce of leftover ideas to clutter the proceedings.
To the delight of fans the world over, Beck enlisted Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), the reigning critical darling of the music-production world, to man the boards on "Modern Guilt." They make an excellent team, what with their shared taste for `60s psychedelic rock, twitchy percussion and looped string samples -- not to mention their impeccable ear for catchy riffs. The surf-rock bass line that serves as the backbone for "Gamma Ray" makes it the closest approximation to a pop song Beck has written in years.
Perhaps tired of hearing that his last two records were trying too hard to be "Odelay 2.0," Beck has dialed back his use of left-field audio samples and bits of obscure and forgotten songs from decades past, choosing instead to interpret those influences and recreate them as fairly straightforward rock tunes. People seem to forget that, if you ignore the space-cowboy production flourishes that saturate every last inch of Beck's late-`90s output, he was -- and still is -- one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of the last 25 years.
Of course, it wouldn't be a true Beck album if he didn't make room in his lyrics for a full notebook's worth of wacky one-liners and vaguely interpretable philosophical musings. The churning "Soul of a Man" finds our hero spitting out non sequiturs as if he made them up a few seconds before walking into the recording booth. "Beat my bones against the wall/Put a bank note on your bond/Gris-gris and a goldenrod/Deep down in a hollow log," goes one verse, the words apparently chosen for no reason other than to meet the song's syllabic needs.
"Chemtrails," the slow and dreamy lead single, addresses the urban legend that the vapor trails from commercial airliners contain chemicals that, once they fall to Earth and are inhaled by an unaware populace, allow the government to control us. (Sample lyric: "You and me hit by a test of white evil/Watching the jet planes go by") Now, that may just be the Scientology talking, but the fact remains that "Chemtrails" is one of the most beautifully composed Beck ballads in recent memory.
Prior to the release of "Modern Guilt," there was a lot of excited chatter over the news that soul singer Cat Power (Chan Marshall) would be making a cameo appearance on two of the album's tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls," but her contributions are so incidental (and not to mention barely audible) that I think mentioning them four-fifths of the way through my review will suffice.
The most notable aspect of "Modern Guilt," in my opinion, is that it is the first Beck album since 1999's "Midnite Vultures" to not have a single clunker on it. Perhaps they were crafted that way, to get in and out in less than four minutes each and leave you wanting more. And there's no guilt in that, modern or otherwise. |
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