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.
A perfect treasure of soft, spangled woe sung with a heavy open heart ... It's the best album Beck has ever made.
Beck has crafted a meditative masterpiece of powerful resonance.
With repeated listenings, the sluggish ditties transform into a beautiful, mournful hymn of love won and lost.
Beck incorporates everything from elements of Nick Drake and Pink Floyd to a massive quote from Serge Gainsbourg's Melody Nelson, while Radiohead sidekick Nigel Godrich builds the songs into something more by twisting tape around blending sounds in the background. It's as grandiose as a breakup record could be.
Once you've let it grow on you, Sea Change is largely so lovely that you'll forgive him.
On Sea Change, Beck sounds intentionally world-weary, but it's the songs themselves that sound labored. Is it no longer enough for Beck to write profound, genre-bending tunes that stand on their own? Does he really need the crutch of suffocating overproduction and bold strokes of orchestration to shock us into caring again?
Beck had already established a truly massive amount of versatility over the 90's, with albums Mellow Gold and Odelay having such an eclectic array of genres they really could never be fully pegged down. His next release, Mutations, explored more of his folk and blues influences and, while more grounded in consistent tones, was still clearly an experimental affair for the artist. Midnite Vultures was an also more grounded album, but was far more upbeat and tailored more towards a funky style of ... read more
One of the prettiest records I've come across in awhile. Like many others the only Beck Song I'd ever heard before this was Loser, so this is definitely not what I was expecting. It's gorgeous. Frontloaded, but gorgeous
1 | The Golden Age 4:36 | 94 |
2 | Paper Tiger 4:35 | 91 |
3 | Guess I'm Doing Fine 4:49 | 91 |
4 | Lonesome Tears 5:37 | 88 |
5 | Lost Cause 3:47 | 91 |
6 | End of the Day 5:03 | 84 |
7 | It's All In Your Mind 3:05 | 85 |
8 | Round the Bend 5:15 | 88 |
9 | Already Dead 2:58 | 84 |
10 | Sunday Sun 4:44 | 85 |
11 | Little One 4:26 | 85 |
12 | Side of the Road 3:23 | 84 |