Beck's "Sea Change"

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE this album. It is his best by a long shot IMO. But what does everyone else think of it? I suspect it will be one of the best-reviewed albums this year (topped only by Sigur Ros when it hits, no doubt). But anyway, it's certainly a refreshing turnaround after the mediocre 'Midnite Vultures' (which still managed a few ace tracks like 'Milk & Honey'). And if this thread's been done before, we can talk about the new Delgados record.

― Simon H., Saturday, 21 September 2002 11:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't understand how anyone can LOVE LOVE LOVE "Sea Change". Talk about a disapointment. Boring, samey songs, drenched in washed-out strings and a superficial fabric of electronic noise. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" did much of the same thing, and loads better. I'm a big fan of "Mutations", but here, Beck's just stumbling around in the twilight. Here's hoping the other record he has (nearly) ready isn't the big fart this one is.

― tangmonkey (Sean M), Saturday, 21 September 2002 14:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I just read an article about the album in my local newspaper Arts & Entertainment section, and the reporter (while incorrectly stating the title of Beck's 1998 release as "Permutations") said that every track on the album was written about Beck's breakup with his longtime girlfriend Leigh Limon, a costume designer from Los Angeles. Surely this can't be bad. Sonically, the songs might be overly sappy, but is it really possible to argue with heartfelt lyrics that Beck is now writing, arguably I suppose, for the very first time?

An exception being "Nobody's Fault But My Own" off Permutations, which was reportedly written under awareness of the cracks that were then beginning to form in Beck & Leigh's relationship.

― Famous Athlete, Saturday, 21 September 2002 19:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I've enjoyed some of the new tunes on MP3, but I suspect listening to all those meandering coke-haze breakup ballads in sequence would become quite grating.

― gazuga, Sunday, 22 September 2002 05:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I've only read one review, which compares it to Stormbringer by John and Beverly Martin. Which is more than fine in my book. Looking forward to Sea Change. I shall also seek out tangmonkey's Wilco tip.

― Daniel (dancity), Sunday, 22 September 2002 09:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i just put on the first mp3 i dl. "round the bend" and i am thinking it's very reminiscent of 'river man' in the way the guitar and strings are interacting. some of the same chords

― ron (ron), Sunday, 22 September 2002 17:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not sure I buy this transformation from smug overly ironic smartass to an erstwhile Graham Parsons pouring his heart out. Everything Beck does seems somehow phony. Usually I can live with this because he doesn't take himself that seriously. But when he projects ernestness at this point I don't know what to think.

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Sunday, 22 September 2002 18:24 (twenty-three years ago)

You sound bitter. Are people calling you up because they actually think you're Beck's house?

― Nate Patrin, Sunday, 22 September 2002 18:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I think "Sea change" is boring, turgid rubbish. And I've liked all his albums up to this one.

― Michael Bourke, Sunday, 22 September 2002 18:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I usually don't mind much, but that Winona chick is kind of scaring me.

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Sunday, 22 September 2002 21:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, it's very Nick Drake. I like Sea Change alot from my first listen.

― kinski (kinski), Sunday, 22 September 2002 21:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I prefer Beck when he gets Prince-ish. My housemate asked if I was listrening to The Pernice Bros. Still it's a good listen

― brg30 (brg30), Sunday, 22 September 2002 21:48 (twenty-three years ago)

"it's very nick drake" = "parents fan fiction", nearly

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 22 September 2002 22:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I called the Style Police on this one when I discussed it recently on my website:

'The new Beck album, 'Sea Change', is a let-down, it's 'Mutations' with weaker tunes and some of the most outrageous Gainsbourg / Vannier arrangement rips you will ever hear. (To be reviving Gainsbourg in 2002 -- and ripping off original arrangements this blatantly -- is simply an aesthetic error. What on earth is Beck thinking of?)'

I thought at least of 'Midnite Vultures' touched greatness. Beck's brother told me Beck is putting finishing touches on his next album, a 'rock' album, which will be more in the Vultures-Odelay-Mellow Gold mold. That's the one I'm looking forward to. Enough dreary songs about doomed relationships, already!

― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 22 September 2002 23:47 (twenty-three years ago)

'...at least half of 'Midnite Vultures' touched greatness..'

― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 22 September 2002 23:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, everyone knows that Gainsbourg rips/tributes were far more fashionable in 1991, huh? With all due respect to Our Momus, I'm actually looking forward to hearing this one; albums that polarize people this much are generally worth a listen. Certainly it'll turn up in the used bins pretty quickly around these parts.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 23 September 2002 00:03 (twenty-three years ago)

i really am liking that song, it's pretty. revised description to 'river man' with flying saucer attack mixing the strings.

― ron (ron), Monday, 23 September 2002 03:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the main reason "Sea Change" is marginally (*marginally*, I say!) weaker than "Mutations" is the wholly transparent and too obvious lyrics. Beck has usually been cryptic (when he's not trying to be funny/ironic), and lyrics like "there's only lies that I'm living/there's only tears that I'm crying" are a dime a dozen, whether he means it or not. Maybe it has more "mainstream appeal", I dunno. (Not that I expect to hear any of it on the radio.)

Automator + Beck should be good though. Well, better than the Gorrilaz, anyway.

-snorf

p.s. Re: the Delgados new album, the pre-release copy I got today is kicking ass in my CD player as I write this.

― Brian the Snorf, Monday, 23 September 2002 09:23 (twenty-three years ago)

*note to self: must make more use of the "[xx]'s brother told me" thing*

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 23 September 2002 09:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"I'm not sure I buy this transformation from smug overly ironic smartass to an erstwhile Graham Parsons pouring his heart out."

yes, but he made terrifyingly sincere folk/punk/noise for years before he backed away from the darkness and became a kind of solo paul mccartney technique over content type character.

I haven't heard sea change yet, but if he is really going back to writing the kind of heartbreaking folk songs he used to, only without the unlistenable interludes, then it sounds great. But what i fear is him just adopting the gram parsons shtichk like he did the prince shtichk - just because he can.

― adam b (adam b), Monday, 23 September 2002 10:27 (twenty-three years ago)

is this the new album? popular Irish radio DJ John Kelly played a track from it last thursday. I listened to it and thought "mmm, someone has been listening to Serge Gainsbourg's 'Ballad of Melody Nelson'". I mean, the track was beyond influence/homage and into outright plagiarism. To ram the point home Kelly followed the track with one from the mighty Serge.

So, if I already have the Ballad of Melody Nelson do I need to buy this new album by Beck? that is the real question.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 23 September 2002 10:58 (twenty-three years ago)

aaargh! just realised it sounds like i'm accusing beck of "selling out"!

what's worse, is that i think i might be.

― adam b (adam b), Monday, 23 September 2002 11:33 (twenty-three years ago)

even if it's a let down, Sea Change is a f*cking great let down.

i'm calling Mickey Newberry on this one

-----
http://go.to/stevek

― steve k, Monday, 23 September 2002 14:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't worry Adam B. Being stylistically promiscuous isn't necessarily the same thing as selling out, even if it does seem calculated. Take Bowie for instance, he more or less did what Beck is doing with Sea Change a dozen times. Usually the material was good enough to overcome it.

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Monday, 23 September 2002 23:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's one of the best this year so far. I need to give it a few more listens to decide if I like it better than Mutations, but this album brings me a feeling that Beck's going to be making good music for a long while.

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 20:18 (twenty-three years ago)

big fat fucking dud. ugh. the alt-nation ages, grows solipsistic, starts feeling sorry for itself, looks to leaders for guidance. see also: Crosby, Stills and Nash. see also: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. ugh.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 21:40 (twenty-three years ago)

starts feeling sorry for itself

I thought that was the whole idea from the start.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 01:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Dud.

Beck mattered because of his whimsy, not his sucky old life. I downloaded this dud about 6 weeks ago and thought it had been spoofed because it is so unrecognizable. I mean, he actually sets himself up as a singer on this album. Again, that's not what anyone likes about Beck. The various undercurrents are uninspired, and don't have any degree of curiosity to them. Where is the inquisitive songwriter here? The fact (?) that he got sucked into sloppy sixtieths with Winona is not impressive, either. Wow, I'd love to give Sea Change credit for something, for at least Beck being Beck but it would be unwarranted. It's mediocre from start to finish.

And let me step in front of Patrin to defend YHF: the Wilco pity me album was Summerteeth, and at least Wilco is stretching the boundaries of whatever they've done in the past. Maybe it took help from an Indie Approved™ producer but at least they are exploring--and it's laudable that the steps they take away from their norm are so slight that their fans can comfortably follow along. Beck, on the other hand, introduces nothing surprising on Sea Change except for the overwhelming feeling that he's run out of ideas *and* hooks.

― Don Weiner, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 02:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Personally I think Sea Change works okay if you listen to it one song at a time. Preferably one a day, tempered by consecutive listens to Mellow Gold and Stereopathetic Soulmanure, but still, there's... well, some merit (what I call "hey, here's a copy in the used bin and I have $9 and that second-hand Gary Numan CD I was gonna get is too scuffed" merit). And he'll get over Leigh or whatever her name is and bring out that crazy fun Automator collab follow-up and everything will be just fine, do you hear me? JUST FINE gurgle shudder froth

― Nate Patrin, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 02:47 (twenty-three years ago)

More listens of Sea Change and I've decided that I quite like it, though I think Nate is right...it's a bit too much all in a row. I will suspend any comments of my own about Gainsbourg, because the only Gainsbourg stuff I know is the really sleazy stuff...what I will say is that the biggest thing this reminds me of is probably Wish You Were Here-era Floyd. Maybe I'm just nuts, though.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 30 September 2002 13:35 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Okay, so maybe it's not his best but I found Little One to be a gem, as well as, Lost Cause. To listen to the whole album at once is a little too depressing, but then life isn't perfect.

― Ali Suitt, Tuesday, 2 December 2003 04:19 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

I think it's amazingly selfish for everyone on here to think this album was meant for you. Beck is an incredible entertainer and he is brilliant in his lyrics. If you knew what it was like to be completely ruined emotionally because of someone else, I think you'd probably lack the ability, or care, to try to make your lyrics a little wittier. It's disgusting that you even think you have the right to criticize him, or anyone for that matter. Take a look at yourself before you sit there at your computers telling the world that Beck's album is a let-down. Grow some fucking compassion.

― Candice Moonstone, Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's amazingly selfish for everyone on here to think this album was meant for you.

Yeah! It was only meant for Candace because SHE UNDERSTANDS!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

It's disgusting that you even have the right to criticize him, or anyone for that matter'

Yeah so i took a look at that whole Taliban thing, and you know what?I liked what i saw.

― arf, Wednesday, 7 January 2004 18:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean, he actually sets himself up as a singer on this album. Again, that's not what anyone likes about Beck.

Speak for yourself.

This is a very good driving on a rainy day album.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

this is kinda tangential, but I heard "lost cause" in a bar and really liked it. listened to an mp3 of it a couple of weeks later and was so annoyed by the godrich production that I wasn't able to pick up in big noisy bar. way too over produced w/ the usual godrich cliche's.

― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 18:51 (twenty-two years ago)

funny, i heard 'sea change' playing in a bookshop just last night. sounded really great & couldn't place who it was until 'lost cause' came on. now i'm thinking i should get myself a copy...but maybe upon a closer listen i'll have the same experience bill did in above post...though on past listens to 'lost cause' i appreciated the production, not to mention the glockenspiel-or-whatever-that-is tinkling away

― Dallas Yertle (Dallas Yertle), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 23:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to like it, but somehow it has become almost painfully dreary.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 23:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Absolutely D of all Ds.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It's even duller than a Graham Nash solo album.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to like it, but somehow it has become almost painfully dreary.

ditto

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Laugh if you must but the material worked a lot better when the Flaming Lips backed him live during their '02 Monsters of Pop-Art Indie Psych tour.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 8 January 2004 02:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Listened to this on the way to work...this might be the most boring album I own. I cannot fathom the praise of this record. Every melody see-saws between two 3-note phrases, which is OK for punk I guess by not for singer-songwriter ballads. Listen to some Paul McCartney or something, Beck.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

uncultured swine
this album is beautiful. hes obviously been influenced by the flaming lips alot in his soft melodramatic songwriting and its a completely diffrent beck. you cant compare this album to any other beck album not even mutations. take it by itself and its amazing. listen to paul mccartney???

― ang, Wednesday, 10 March 2004 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sea Change" and Pete Gabriel's "UP" came out just as my girlfriend broke up with me and they kept me away from gin, so i like them.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 06:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved this record for six months. Now I can't listen to it ever again.

But that's actually more than I can say for the folks he supposed ripped off...(Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Wilco et al's latest efforts)

― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 06:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes this album was a bit of a let down. To all of you who are claming the Gainsbourg "melody" is too late : Beck was one of the FIRST people I heard talking about Histore du Melody Nelson, this was back in 1997 or so. Check out Bobby Conn's " The Golden Age" . It opens with the exact same idea.

― Darth Nader, Wednesday, 10 March 2004 06:46 (twenty-two years ago)

this was back in 1997 or so

*frowns at this*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 06:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Sea Change" and Pete Gabriel's "UP" came out just as my girlfriend broke up with me

maybe these things were connected

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 07:13 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

I heard this album again recently, and WOW!

SUCH A DUD. That is some kind of colorless MOR shit, how did this get praised?

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 14 June 2004 08:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Answer: A LOT of deluded reviewers who were so, SO excited at the fact that Beck was finally releasing another record that they went nuts even though it blows.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 14 June 2004 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

the best, most OTM review ive ever read of this album was in the wire. if anyone can post that up, it would be appreciated.

sea change sucks by the way, i was hoping beck might do something in the vein of the quite brilliant diamond dogs remake that he did with timbaland for his new LP but a 'rock' direction can only sound a 243903 times better than SC.

― thesplooge (thesplooge), Monday, 14 June 2004 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

couldn't disagree more. fantastic album. not quite classic, but certainly not dud.

― frankE (frankE), Monday, 14 June 2004 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I heard it again in a store a couple of nights ago and didn't recognize it immediately, instead wondering what the deal was with this acoustic Coldplay album I was listening to.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 14 June 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

OTM, re: coldplay. i think beck was just being smart by realising he could quite easily do the whole maudlin, weedy, tepid folksy pop/rock being made by travis, coldplay and their ilk. so thats what he did. this whole subtext that it was about his ex-gf might be true but it might not (he even said some songs were written before), but it lends itself to this whole 'beck was being personal for once' argument a bit too easily. if thats beck being personal, i want him to be cryptic, anti-confessional, and wholly impersonal from here on out.

― thesplooge (thesplooge), Monday, 14 June 2004 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

It's his Scientology album, isn't it?

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Monday, 14 June 2004 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely that's upcoming.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 June 2004 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

From what I have heard of Sea Change, some of the lyrics sounded very scientology-esque. I'm sure it will only get worse, but then there would be something very funny about a Battlefield Earth inspired album.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Monday, 14 June 2004 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Here ya go!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 June 2004 16:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Not quite what I had in mind...

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Monday, 14 June 2004 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

not this again...

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 14 June 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

If Beck could get Travolta and the half of the That '70s Show which is Scientologist to be backing singers I might actually buy it.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 14 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Beck's Greetings From The State Of Clear comes out September 13th

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 14 June 2004 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

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Beck's "Sea Change" - C or D?