Modern Guilt

Beck - Modern Guilt
Critic Score
Based on 28 reviews
2008 Ratings: #301 / 806
Year End Rank: #29
User Score
Based on 292 ratings
2008 Rank: #173
Liked by 33 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

83
Entertainment Weekly

Burton makes the ultimate endgame sound like a party you’d still want to be invited to — one that even Beck might enjoy, despite himself.

80
Q Magazine
The slacker boy wonder has grown up to be a man on a new mission.
80
Rolling Stone
Taken as a whole, the album's first five songs stand among Beck's strongest work.
80
Uncut

So Beck is finally fun again, and you suspect the person most surprised by how well Modern Guilt turned out is the guy who made it.

80
Under the Radar

Modern Guilt adds Danger Mouse and Cat Power to Beck's roster of collaborators, with spectacular results.

80
Mojo

So does the pairing work? The answer, from the first, strutting beats of Modern Guilt's opener, 'Orphans,' is a gleaming Yes.

80
God Is in the TV
Beck's still not the entertainer he used to be in the "good old days" of 'Odelay' but he's settled into his new skin remarkably well. Thriving in the less obvious moments, the addition of Burton on board was essential, an ideal companion for a record so clear in direction.
80
Paste

All this adds up to Beck’s darkest record to date, one that captures the uncertainty of 2008 as well as Mellow Gold distilled apathy in 1994.

80
The Independent
Oddly, Beck, once typed as a post-modern dilettante, now convincingly pleads for something real.
80
AllMusic

Here, they deliver enough substance and style to make Modern Guilt an effective dosage of 21st century paranoia.

80
Record Collector
Once you could see the joins in Beck’s anything goes approach. These days it’s so fastidiously refined there is no longer genre + genre = mashup; more Beck = Mr Modern Genius.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes

2008 requires more focus and more grace. Modern Guilt delivers both.

77
Coke Machine Glow

The concept of a modern type of guilt is probably supposed to imply the effortlessly achievable comfort and depressed humility with which much of the album is sung. Perhaps ironically, the best way to enjoy Modern Guilt is with blinders on to this sort of temporal perspective.

75
A.V. Club

Odelay this surely isn't, but Beck it surely is—a chameleon who changes colors just enough to keep himself interested.

70
Prefix

Modern Guilt doesn’t quite make it to that flashpoint, but it certainly points the way to a musical future brighter than the endless, mirrored hall of “Devils Haircut” rewrites that songs like “E-Pro” suggested was coming. And that is a sea change worth waiting for.

70
Slant Magazine
Recently, Beck too often sounds like he's playing with his toys and not intent on making actual music, but the new album's brief 10 tracks prove that he's almost always more interesting when he's not having fun.
70
American Songwriter

The only conclusion one can draw from a close examination of the lyrics on Modern Guilt is that it’s all one big downward spiral; he’s apparently disintegrating from the inside while the world around him does the same.

70
Pitchfork

Though Modern Guilt is more direct and consistent than his last two scattershot LPs, it also finds the disillusioned L.A. hippie struggling to balance his deathly outlook with his more crowd-pleasing inclinations.

70
Consequence of Sound
The sleek yet rustic production offers a great escape to the digital monotony that would have likely plagued him otherwise. If anything, this is going to sound great in the middle of the night.
70
No Ripcord
While not the most creative thing he’s produced, it feels naturally cohesive and stands as an interesting piece on its own.
70
SPIN

In a scant 30-plus minutes, Modern Guilt modestly proves that it's still restlessness, both artistic and personal, that drives the only living boy in Los Angeles.

70
Drowned in Sound
It sits alone in his cannon as being slightly uncomfortable but in turn is a brilliantly concise work (it runs to a little over 30 minutes).
60
The Skinny

With Danger Mouse on production duties, Modern Guilt is at its best when the rhythm is allowed to dominate.

60
The Line of Best Fit

Despite moving away from the unabashed fun and unique timbres one is accustomed to with Beck, this new clutch of songs give their own lasting, unpretentious impression.

60
PopMatters
This unpretentious attitude permeates the album’s writing and terse production whose results are self-evident: it lacks the unique resonating timbres one is accustomed to with Beck.
50
musicOMH
It's hard to deny the fresh, eclectic sounds of Walls or the sheer beauty in the closing sounds of Volcano, but overall, if this is any indication, Danger Mouse's productions are losing their novelty, and Beck remains at an uneven point in his career.
40
The Guardian

Modern Guilt feels like a vanity project: there is no attempt to reach out, none of the classic pop singles Beck has been revered for, just 10 inward-looking, unlovable tracks.

40
NOW Magazine

Everything moves in linear fashion backwards, with only Danger Mouse’s bold battering saving Beck from a horrifying relapse into dreary Sea Change melancholia.

SnobWagon
77

Beck goes for an interesting approach on this one. He applies his sound to a more Psychedelic kind of direction while also mixing it with a little bit of garage rock and even surf rock. I think gamma ray is the highlight track that sticks out the most, as well as the underrated closer Volcano. Some sections seem a little bit Unfinished and messy at times. It's not Becks best but it's still worth a good listen

Quet
75

Modern Guilt is a set of mostly good psych-rock homages.

deardani
40

the modern guilt of making this album

kattenbroekcom
79

This album is a bit underrated in the Beckography combining modern Beck production with 60s tropes with more emotional depth as well and a shortened tracklist?!!? Basically everything I've been hopin from Beck out of Guero & The Information. Some songs do feel a bit lacking here and there but this is overall a very good release and even reminds me a bit of Spoon through-out.

deardani
40

the modern guilt of making this album

80

Best Tracks: Gamma Ray, Profanity Players. Chemtrails

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Track List

1Orphans
3:15
86
2Gamma Ray
2:56
87
3Chemtrails
4:40
85
4Modern Guilt
3:14
84
5Youthless
2:59
82
6Walls
2:22
84
7Replica
3:25
78
8Soul of a Man
2:36
72
9Profanity Prayers
3:43
85
10Volcano
4:28
87
Total Length: 33 minutes
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