If you manage to peel your eyes from your text books, because I know everyone is working hard, you might have a minute to listen to “Sea Change,” the eighth and freshly released album by Beck.
Beck takes a far step away from his extremely popular Odelay with producer and engineer Nigel Godrich, known for his work with Radiohead.
“Sea Change” is a very mellow acoustic session where Beck couples his calm, low voice with warm acoustic guitar tones. The album is somber as a whole, ranging from the super melancholy “Round the Bend,” to the only slightly gloomy “Sunday Sun.”
The theme of the lyrics fall in line with the music, often mentioning nighttime, sunsets and moonlight.
The highlight for me may have been the great acoustic guitar work on “Already Dead” and the droning stand-up bass on “Side of the Road”.
Beck is backed by a band on this album but still is the sole writer of all the music and lyrics.Without trying to mislead you too much, I would say that, with Nigel Godrich, “Sea Change” does have some similarities to Radiohead and in my opinion Wilco ? remember I said similar, not same.
The haunting layers of organ, piano, percussion and strings resting atop the acoustic guitar give you that mellow feeling we all could use from time to time.
Beck will be touring this summer with The Flaming Lips as his opening band and backing band. The tour will be stopping in Syracuse on Oct. 26 and the tickets are on sale now.
You can pick up Beck’s “Sea Change” at your favorite local record store.
Salko can be reached at dsalko@campustimes.org.
