I’m So Tired of Being Along These Penitent Wall Are All I’ve Known

The nineties were all about keeping it real, from the rappers to the rockers, you had to be serious to be taken seriously. That was probably why Beck was written off as a one hit wonder when his irreverent song about shaving your face with some mace in the dark became an MTV staple and had teenagers racing to their Spanish to English dictionaries. Beck ended up becoming weirder and more irreverent with his next album Odelay with help from The Dust Brothers (who helped the Beastie Boys get weird on their second album Paul’s Boutique) and ended up becoming one of the most respected artists of the era after its release. He then closed out the slacker decade by defying the logic of our nation’s sexx laws the only way Beck can.

Then came the new millennium and a quite literal Sea Change where all the fun was sucked from Beck’s music. The 2002 album was in result of a failed nine year relationship and was as depressing as you would expect. Was it good? Yes. But did the world need an album full of sad bastard, mostly acoustic tracks from Beck? Probably not.

Twelve years and three albums later (four if you count the sheet music only album), Beck is back with another batch of sad bastard songs. Morning Phase is dubbed a “companion piece” to Sea Change and is filled with the same acoustic based folk that is still manages to wrap itself in a wall of a sound. Much like Sea Change, Morning Phase is haunting and beautiful, but I still prefer my Beck to be weird and irreverent. Leave the mopey acoustic folk to Ray LaMontagne.

Song to Download – Blue Moon

Morning Phase gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.