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Beck’s ‘Guilt’ found mostly in apparent apathy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beck
‘Modern Guilt’
(Interscope)
About 10 years ago, Beck seemed to be the voice of the past, present and future all at once, the voice of a generation that couldn’t be bothered to have one.
Today? Not so much.
Back then, Beck was our most winning loser, the sleepy-eyed Los Angeles man-child who could make the most ironic musical gestures sound frank (or at least confuse the two to the point where we didn’t care). Whose muse, fearing no genre or form, seemed to go anywhere. Who made it seem like music that could go anywhere was the only music that mattered.
These days, Beck sounds sluggish where he once sounded vibrant, subdued where he once sounded energized. He enlisted producer du jour Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley and a bunch more) to helm “Modern Guilt,” but Danger seems like more of an enabler, letting Beck mosey around even when the beat picks up. The album clocks in at a mere 33 minutes (and consider a point added for that), but it drags anyway. “I’m tired of people who just want to be pleased,” he sings on “Volcano,” but it comes off sounding more like “I’m tired of people,” which is not a good sign for a guy who once sounded energized by everything around him.
He even gets a little snippy with us. “Walls” chastises his fellow Americans: “You treat distraction like it’s a religion,” he sings. From whom do you think we learned that trick, buddy?
Much of “Modern Guilt” goes for a watery psychedelia but ends up soggy. “Gamma Ray” evokes loosey-goosey garage pop but ends up loggy. “Chemtrails” looks at the L.A. sky’s pollution-tipped beauty but just seems smoggy. There’s a haze here he just can’t shake.
See, around 2000, he and his girlfriend, designer Leigh Limon, split up; nothing has been quite the same since. His 2002 album, “Sea Change,” is one of the decade’s most emotionally exhausting break-up records, an almost-comatose lament that’s perfect by which to Google old flames. He got religion, got married within his childhood faith (he and his wife, actress Marissa Ribisi, are second-generation Scientologists) and had a couple of kids. He even made a few more records, “Guero” in ‘05 and “The Information” in ‘06. They were OK. Good, actually. Well, “Guero” was, wasn’t it? It seems forever ago, but it wasn’t even four years ago.
Maybe it’s because the old stuff still sounds more alive, not tired of people but engaged by them.
In short, he became an adult. And “Modern Guilt” aims for an adult depth of feeling, but being an adult doesn’t mean giving up on the world. If anything, it should make you redouble your efforts to make it what you want it to be.
Which makes you wonder: Does the guilt come from no longer sounding modern?
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Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: ACL Festival, Reviews
Comments
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By beckturnedbad
July 8, 2008 4:44 PM | Link to this
Beck lost me at Guerro. When I hear it it makes me angry & ill at how shallow it is. I used to love Beck, he used to be great. What happened? Scientology limiting you or what beck? I wish Prince would stop playing music too. Again it is nausiating. Excuse me while I….
By Stan
July 8, 2008 5:24 PM | Link to this
I quite like this album.
By thomas
July 12, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this
I think you nailed pretty close to how I feel about Beck at this time. There is just something cold and sterilized about this record and even The Information before it. The difference is, I think there is a great 40 minute or so record within The Information’s bloated running time.
By robert
July 16, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this
3 stars out of __?
i don’t see the scale anywhere on this blog.
By Sharon Chapman
July 16, 2008 10:12 AM | Link to this
Robert, we use a five-star scale.