Modern Guilt

Album number nine is Beck’s Modern Guilt from 2008.  I had heard good reviews for this album, Beck’s eleventh, so I decided to give it a listen.  The first track starts off with a deep, pulsing beat, which soon gives way to a sound that is quite retro in nature.  This 60’s throwback theme continues throughout the song, reminding me of a summer day from yesteryear.  Titled Orphans, it provides a decent start to the album.  The next song, Gamma Ray, continues in this retro vein.  Like with Brian Wilson, Beck’s Los Angeles roots can be easily heard, shining through the music.  While track three sounds like it’s from an earlier era as well, it has a slower, more experimental feel making it my favorite on the album so far.  The fourth song is the title track.  While it’s the first to predominantly sound like it’s from a more modern era, I found it to be quite simple and uninteresting.  The next song, Youthless, continues this trend.  It sounds like the kind of song played in an H&M store.  Fashionable, sleek production, and little substance. 

            The second half of the album starts off with a song titled Walls.  While I’m not sure that I like the track, I can at least commend Beck on his choice of diversity.  Next, is Replica.  It is here where Danger Mouse’s production style is most evident.  The intro sounds pretty bland and homogonous however towards the end, the track becomes more interesting (particularly as the Beatlesque string line enters in).  Following that is a song titled Soul of a Man.  While the track is funkier (apropos of it’s title), Beck doesn’t evolve or develop the initial groove and as a result it fails to go anywhere.  Track nine is Profanity Prayers.  I actually liked this track better then the last several songs.  It’s distorted guitars sound reminiscent of Radiohead and there is some more experimentation towards the end of the track (two things I’m a sucker for).  The final number on the album is Volcano.  I liked this one as well.  Like most songs on the album, Beck ends this one abruptly leaving the work just short of 34 minutes.  I found this to be surprisingly short for a modern rock album (especially for Beck!).  Unfortunately, despite his one two punch at the end of the album, Beck fails to deliver a set of material worthy of much praise.  In the end (literally), the few decent tracks do not justify buying an entire album filled with mediocrity.