Beck: Modern Guilt

 
I would call myself a casual Beck fan at best: Sea Change is the only album of his I’ve ever fully embraced; everything prior felt like schtick to me. Post-Sea Change, Guero found its way into my collection though I never got into it, and I haven’t heard a single song from The Information. So I’ve got nothing at stake as a listener or fan when it comes to Modern Guilt. That might explain my ambivalence to the album.

There are no bad songs here; nor are there any songs that jump out and shout classic. I keep coming back to the album with the suspicion that it might be a grower, but instead it just sort of passes by me. At a little over thirty minutes, it comes and goes quickly; within that span of time, the ten tracks all run at relatively the same pace and tone: upbeat but not busy, fun but without punch. The album was produced by Danger Mouse, who I suspect is getting more overrated by the album. Some of the tracks here—“Gamma Ray” in particular—sound like cast-offs from a Gnarls Barkley session. The beats shuffle rather than kick and the bass lines have more indebted to pickers like Paul McCartney or Brian Ritchie than the kind of rhythmic funk that has held down previous Beck albums.

I’ve got tickets to see Beck in a couple of months at Hollywood Bowl, with Spoon in tow. The pairing is apparently no accident, as the title track makes it obvious that Beck is a Spoon fan. If only Mike McCarthy and the band got behind Beck in the studio rather than Danger Mouse, Modern Guilt might have been a more sonically interesting record. (Seriously: if you haven't noticed how flawlessly produced Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, you're missing out on that record.)

Not to lay an unfair amount of blame at Danger Mouse’s doorstep. Production and songwriting are really trotting hand-in-hand down the middle of the road. The album sounds good, and the songs themselves are good too—but that’s kind of it: they’re good. Not great, not unpredictable, not essential. Modern Guilt never sinks below whatever bar Beck has set for himself, but it never really rises above it either. What we’re left with is a “pretty good” record that never disappoints nor thrills; ten albums and fifteen years into an artist’s career, maybe that’s not so bad. I’ll leave it to bigger Beck fans than I as to whether they think merely good is forgivable or not.

• Beck, Modern Guilt

Comments

[Matt]

I've listened to Modern Guilt three or four times now. If I had to, at this second, hum a bar of it or shout out a memorable lyric, I would fail. It's sort of like aural celery... interesting texture but bland like crunchy water.
I think of myself as a big Beck fan, but this one is getting returned for store credit pretty quick. I can't see it as a grower. Just a collector. Of dust.

[Paul]

I like early Beck. And I like old country music.

Hey... I think I must like schtik!

Just kidding around. Thanks for the great review.

[Clayton Burrows]

Great Work Man!!!!!

[Clayton Burrows]

Great Job Man!!!!

[Clayton Burrows]

Great Job Man!!!!

[Richard]

I was sort of into Beck for a little while, but Midnite Vultures killed it for me--it has a couple of really good songs ("Sexx Laws"; "Debra"), but stank of genre exercise to me. Since then, I keep forgetting he still makes music, he's so irrelevant to me.

As for his old stuff, I have a soft spot for most of Odelay and a good portion of Mellow Gold. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say you might like Mutations. I say "out on a limb" because it's been years since I've listened to it. It was treated like a throwaway album at the time it was released, but I remember really liking it.

[cyndi]

I consider myself a big Beck fan.
Your review kind of made me question my thoughts about this new Beck album so before writing this I had to go back and listen to it again.

Now I can really share why I like it. It is silky summertime to me. It has an ease about it that is yummy because it is akin to chick lit. I mean this in a good way. Not everything has to be hard hitting. There is a place for yumminess. I so quickly forget so many things that I hear. This album makes me move my arms around in a Beach Boys way, it reminds me of eating chocolate, sipping a summer beverage and swimming on a warm summer night - mmmmmmm.
I will return to it again and again for the Beck smoothness it offers.

[scott pgwp]

I hadn't even considered this album from a yumminess perspective! (just kiddin'.) nice to see you around these parts, cyndi.