Beck
Morning Phase

There will be a lot of personal elements in this review. Not long ago, a few weeks before the news of a new Beck album started circulating online, I found myself, purely by chance, frequently re-listening to his old records, particularly "Sea Change". In fact, I hadn't listened to anything by Beck for quite some time, and I realized it had been six years since he last released anything, and fundamentally, I missed the old Hansen. So it was with amused excitement that I welcomed the news of his new effort inspired by Sea Change...a bit like receiving a message from a distant cousin just as you're thinking about them. Morning Phase, then.

A brief instrumental intro and "Morning," a splendid ballad that almost feels like a true outtake from Sea Change, immediately takes us back twelve years, yet dispelling any mawkish nostalgia thanks to the simply impeccable beauty of its melodic lines. For the occasion, Beck enlists exactly the same musicians from then, who, in the same vein, carry "Heart is a drum," "Say Goodbye," "Blue Moon," and so forth, all the way to the end of the work. The differences with its ideal predecessor are truly to be looked for with a fine-toothed comb. The string arrangements in "The Wave"? An idea we already found in "Round the bend" on "Sea Change". A certain more pronounced country flair in the final tracks of the album? Perhaps. But it is not in these considerations that we will find the strength of "Morning Phase". The real good news is that, like "Sea Change", this album also consists of very simple songs that one could sing around a bonfire in the evening. There are tricks, but it is the bare and raw sea-song format that reigns supreme. The good news, therefore, is that we are still facing an artist capable of writing beautiful songs that stand on their own without needing any special effects.

Considering that Beck, if he wanted, could easily churn out special effects by the thousands, essentially this good news is that Mr. Hansen is simply back with us once more.