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SEA CHANGE
Beck
(Geffen/Universal)
Frank Sinatra invented it back in the '50s with In the Wee Small Hours. Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye and Fleetwood Mac updated it for the '70s with Blood on the Tracks, Here, My Dear and Rumours. Even '90s ska-punks like No Doubt got into the act with Tragic Kingdom.
We're talking, of course, about the musical entity known as the Breakup Album. Over the decades since Frank first poured out his heart to Ava Gardner on a set of lovelorn ballads, the concept has become something of a rite of passage for singers and songwriters. All the greats above, and plenty more besides, have sung the blues down at the end of lonely street.
Now you can add Beck's name to the register at Heartbreak Hotel. A while back, the eclectic and eccentric L.A. troubadour supposedly split with his longtime love. So like many a songwriter before him, Beck has pinned his heart to his sleeve, set his diary to music and put out an album that allows us to feel his pain. The beautifully bleak Sea Change, as its title suggests, pulls a complete 180 from the audacious white mack-daddy soul of 1999's Midnite Vultures. Of course, on the surface at least, this kind of turnabout is par for the course with the Beckster. Hot on the heels of the junk-culture folk-hop of 1993's Mellow Gold came the darkly gothic folk of One Foot in the Grave; the zippy pop of 1996's Odelay was followed by the subdued and sombre Mutations. Still, none of those previous efforts came across as honestly and desperately as Sea Change. Put it this way: When Beck sang, "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?" before, we knew he was kidding. Now we're not always so sure.
It's obvious from the first minutes of Sea Change that Beck has had the wind knocked out of his sails. "These days I barely get by," he sadly admits on The Golden Age. "I don't even try." It's a lyrical sentiment that permeates every one of these dozen tracks, whose titles -- Paper Tiger, Guess I'm Doing Fine, Lonesome Tears, Lost Cause, End of the Day, It's All in Your Mind, Already Dead, and so on -- tell you everything you need to know about Beck's frame of mind.
Sea Change's music further reflects his lyrical mood. Obviously influenced by Beck's collaborations with atmospheric electronica outfit Air, this 50-minute disc is an understatedly gorgeous blend of mournful country-rock, brooding pop and baroque psychedelia. Drumbeats are minimal, gently nudging grooves that seldom move faster than a sluggish trudge. Sweet keyboards, grand strings, heartbroken slide guitars and eerie effects drape the minor-key melodies. And behind the board, producer Nigel Godrich -- architect of both Radiohead's Amnesiac and Beck's own Mutations -- fashions a genuinely moving, strikingly intimate work of confession and longing that echoes the finest work of Nick Drake or Tim Buckley.
Sinatra may have invented it. Dylan, Marvin Gaye and plenty of others may have done it well. But with Sea Change, Beck has reinvented the Breakup Album for the 21st century. Poor guy. (More on Beck)
Track Listing
1. The Golden Age
2. Paper Tiger
3. Guess I'm Doin' Fine
4. Lonesome Tears
5. Lost Cause
6. Nothing I Haven't Seen
7. All In Your Mind
8. Round The Bend
9. Already Dead
10. Sunday Sun
11. Little One
12. Side Of The Road