Colors

Beck - Colors
Critic Score
Based on 43 reviews
2017 Ratings: #664 / 940
User Score
Based on 517 ratings
2017 Rank: #827
Liked by 18 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
GIGsoup

It’s this freedom that as an artist Beck has built his career on and Colors proves he’s alive and kicking with it. He may not have two turn tables and a microphone but he’s certainly not lost the edge.

87
Paste

As both a quintessential entry into his catalog and a striking entry into mainstream popular culture, Colors once again cements Beck as a clever, ever-dynamic and enduring artist.

85
Northern Transmissions
The depth and amazing songwriting comes in healthy doses on this release, despite the more simple pop skin it hides under.
83
Entertainment Weekly

As his first upbeat album in nearly a decade, Colors proves that Beck is still one of rock’s most intrepid inventors.

80
Rolling Stone
It's a brilliant attempt to reckon with – and put his own stamp on – modern pop in the late 2010s. The result is his most straight-ahead fun album since the Nineties.
80
DIY
‘Colors’ is Beck at his most exuberant, concocting weird, wonderful dancefloor fillers like a mad disco scientist. Good things come to those who wait.
80
Dork
For a record packed with heady highs, immediate glory and an effortless charm - ‘Colors’ is pretty much unrivalled. This is the moment Beck proves he’s the leader of the party, with an album that could turn any mood into a celebration of life.
80
NME
As a collection of songs ... ‘Colors’ is by far Beck’s most upbeat and enjoyable record from front to back since the ’90s. Repeated listens will no doubt be rewarded.
76
Sputnikmusic

Colors is a varied and blissful pop album that finds joy in our times, and Beck expectedly makes it interesting and vibrant to experience. He has decided to make something optimistic in the midst of so much unrest, and it succeeds in bringing a celebratory presence to a world that need it.

75
Under the Radar

If you've missed Beck the musical collage artist, Colors is the one that should bring you back.

75
A.V. Club

Colors is solid—Beck doesn’t make bad records, whatever mode he’s in—and it flirts with greatness, but he’s at his best when he decides to either get loose or get serious, less so when he drives straight down the center.

70
Loud and Quiet
Fans of Beck’s more experimental ventures might feel let down by ‘Colors’’s sheer poppiness, but for everybody else, it’s a very hard album to dislike.
70
PopMatters
It’s not perfect, but it is a joyful, engaging listen, a perfect first step in the “I no longer have anything to prove” phase of Beck’s illustrious career.
70
AllMusic

Unlike earlier Beck albums, Colors doesn't feel like a Whitman's Sampler, as he and Kurstin worked overtime to make sure this all sounds sleek and unified. While that might mean Colors doesn't offer the depth and intrigue of most Beck albums, it does mean it's a fun confection. It's a record that's designed to be nothing but a good time, and that indeed is all that it is.

70
Exclaim!

Colors is a breezy, tightly composed party-starter of a record that doesn't demand much of the listener, but gives back generously.

67
Consequence of Sound

Colors is Beck’s most plainly listenable record in years, and it doesn’t sound like a pallid rehash of any other Beck album, which is a plus. It’s genuinely hard to tell what it’s aiming for ... but its just under 40 minutes go by more briskly than anything else he’s ever made, and you’ll look up about half the time to see what a track is called.

63
Pitchfork

Beck has been working on Colors since 2013, and by the sounds of a recent interview, spent a lot of time trying to get the balance of “not retro and not modern” just so. He more or less nailed that bit, but what’s lacking from his Big Happy Pop Record is some kind of strong emotion that could elevate these songs above the “well crafted but innocuous” camp—something more than an idea.

60
No Ripcord

Beck is inclined to try out his sampling of assorted genres with plenty of whimsy, but it certainly doesn’t do much to quiet those who protested against his Grammy-winning upset, either.

60
The 405
Overall it’s a fun album of two halves. The first half tows the line between the cheesy elements of radio pop that even the snarkiest Slayer fan secretly loves, and some truly inspirational, if not fleeting, compositional substance. The second half, although still very much a fun listen, somewhat strays.
60
The Observer

Given Beck’s ability to redraw rock’s boundaries, Colors is depressingly short of real surprises, its energy a poor substitute for drama or ideas.

60
The Independent
All told, it’s pretty crowded territory, with too many jams.
60
The Line of Best Fit

On Colors, Beck at times sounds like he’s chasing after styles and sounds that have led others to commercial success, instead of forging his own distinctive way forward and leaving us all to follow in his wake.

60
American Songwriter
At times this slick party vibe sounds like Hall & Oates at their least soulful, which is to say the music has an inevitability to it that initially feels fresh, but starts to wear thin when it’s clear the entire album is cut from the same glitzy cloth.
60
The Guardian

By no means is this an average album. In fact, there is nothing moderate about it at all: Colors is extreme, featuring some of the best and worst songs that Beck has ever written.

60
Clash
There are plenty of hooks and the pace rarely relents, but it’s hard to ever imagine ‘Colors’ ever being in anyone’s top five favourite Beck albums.
50
Slant Magazine

Despite the incessant theme of freedom on Colors, Beck’s idiosyncrasies seem constrained by a desire for maximum accessibility.

50
Drowned in Sound

Whether Colors will be a success within the pop world it is clearly aimed at remains to be seen, but one suspects even pop fans will see through this for it appears to be: an album documenting a mid-life crisis.

50
Pretty Much Amazing

Colors is like diet Beck. It’s the Beck record no one listening to Odelay in ’96 would ever have believed existed. It’s the lemonade stand on the too hot day and the ice melts reducing the potency of the product.

40
The Needle Drop
Beck's latest album explores the bland limits of unoriginal, sanitized, millennial pop.
40
musicOMH

The problem with Colors is that where once he innovated, Beck now seems to be imitating the slew of fizzing faceless pop clogging the airwaves buried under a mesh of corporate production.

30
Tiny Mix Tapes

The version of pop foregrounded on Colors is status-quo male pop with occasional musical tweaks and turns, but with an overarching affect of moderate joy. Nothing about Colors substantially provides evidence of disruption or exploration.

Doofy
11

The ultimate argument against Scientology - it's like Beck has had a personality transplant.

Schmedess
40

youre probably wondering why i scored this higher than morning phase and that's because at least some of the songs here are the funniest shit ever

like bro.. "Wow"? i was crying

most of this album does suck but at least I wasn't borderline sleeping throughout the whole thing

Dreams is still a hood classic tho

Quet
74

Colors detaches from the Beck canon for results that are good due to them being paper-thin.

kattenbroekcom
53

So you go from a late era highlight to overproduced radio pop? We serious rn?

JakeyThoms
60

Meh

Spmb69420
94

I’ve never heard an album that can capture a specific feeling in all 10 (No Dreams Colors Mix) songs perfectly. It is truly a love/hate tragic/happy album.

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Track List

1Colors
4:21
83
2Seventh Heaven
5:00
71
3I'm So Free
4:08
73
4Dear Life
3:44
81
5No Distraction
4:32
69
6Dreams
4:57
86
7Wow
3:42
52
8Up All Night
3:10
79
9Square One
2:55
69
10Fix Me
3:13
73
Total Length: 39 minutes
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Added on: August 11, 2017