Beck "Morning Phase" (2014) ***
Marketed as a companion piece to his previous album Sea Change, which makes sense as it sounds a lot like that one. I would say that Morning Phase is less "depressing" sounding, but it's still very mellow. A friend of mine described it as a good "before bed" album.
That description is accurate, but is slightly unfortunate in my opinion as it typically means it's a mood album and not one that I can just throw on any time. Sea Change happens to be the only Beck album I don't own (besides Golden Feelings, but I think even he disowned that one) and the one I listen to the least (I do have MP3s), so this one may befall the same fate.
I do think the production is gorgeous and there are some nice melodies and instrumentation, but the songs are painfully simple at times and the lyrics very obvious. Many moments border on and even cross into "adult contemporary" and that's always a danger zone. When it comes to "acoustic" Beck LPs, I prefer Mutations because it's less straightforward or One Foot In The Grave for its lo-fi noise-folk. I hope Mr. Hansen hasn't completely abandoned his weirdness.
That description is accurate, but is slightly unfortunate in my opinion as it typically means it's a mood album and not one that I can just throw on any time. Sea Change happens to be the only Beck album I don't own (besides Golden Feelings, but I think even he disowned that one) and the one I listen to the least (I do have MP3s), so this one may befall the same fate.
I do think the production is gorgeous and there are some nice melodies and instrumentation, but the songs are painfully simple at times and the lyrics very obvious. Many moments border on and even cross into "adult contemporary" and that's always a danger zone. When it comes to "acoustic" Beck LPs, I prefer Mutations because it's less straightforward or One Foot In The Grave for its lo-fi noise-folk. I hope Mr. Hansen hasn't completely abandoned his weirdness.
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