New Beck CD: Modern Guilt Review
Indie Rock's Multi-Instrumentalist Veteran Releases Eighth Album
Jul 9, 2008
Beck Hansen's lengthy musical career has found him putting a sardonic anti-folk touch on a variety of genres. So it's strange that his newest album—Modern Guilt, which was released Tuesday on Interscope Records or XL Recordings overseas—seems to have found a niche. Modern Guilt has Beck looking back instead of abroad, which follows other recent albums like his 2006 The Information. This isn't entirely negative, however; Beck's musical repertoire allows him to take from multiple genres in order to create an album which is short, yet potent.
Beck Calls Forth Producer Danger Mouse and Singer Cat Power
There are many surprises in Modern Guilt, which is ironically run-of-the-mill for Beck. The album keeps listeners entertained mainly by utilizing vastly different styles of music to convey his message: all is not well. Paranoia, modern angst, and environmental awareness propagate the album, which is as dark as Beck has been in a long time.
Whether it's the surf-rock satire “Gamma Ray”, the almost drill-n-bass “Replica”, or “Modern Guilt”, where his precision rivals indie rockers Spoon; Beck pumps enough foreboding in to let a listener know that this album isn't all fun and games. It's a big shift from his Gameboy-punching lightheartedness on 2005's Guero and 2006's The Information
The attitude of Modern Guilt is greatly aided by the personnel Beck has chosen. The indie star summons Danger Mouse—the mastermind behind Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up The Gray Album—to produce it, and the Mouse's touch is quite impressive. His equally dark production style can be heard on the hip-hop-meets-garage-rock track “Walls”, which also features stratospheric cries by Cat Power.
The indie-folk singer has contributed to two tracks on the CD: the aforementioned “Walls” and opening track “Orphans”. Unfortunately, she largely takes the backseat to Beck's vocals and Danger Mouse's beats, which fits her minimalistic style but is still disappointing.
Modern Guilt Evokes Past Albums, Does Not Look to Future
For the most part, Modern Guilt plays like a cross between Beck's airy breakup album Sea Change and his genre-collecting Mutations. The main difference is that it's not as good as either of them. The album is nowhere near terrible, but it's a step or two away from being a masterpiece. A large problem with the album is that Beck is caught in the introspective whirlpool he found himself in on Sea Change, but he tries to pretend otherwise with upbeat and idiosyncratic songs, one of his early trademarks.
Songs as upbeat and quick as “Youthless” are brought down slightly by lyrics such as “There's a bottomless pit that we've been climbing up/Just to get on level ground,” and “Walls” reminds us over excellent instrumentation that “You got warheads stacked in the kitchen/You treat distraction like an instant religion”.
The pessimism on the album is a little bit much at times, especially when the rest of the instruments keep trucking on as if nothing is wrong. On one hand, it's an excellent portrayal of our society, but on the other, Modern Guilt (as well as life) is too short to be this dark.
8.0/10-Modern Guilt clocks in at only 33½ minutes, is considerably more grave than Beck has been in the better part of a decade, and the music and lyrics seem to go in completely different directions at times. Still, the vocals are powerful, the composition is thrilling, and Danger Mouse and Cat Power both help Beck pave the way through Modern Guilt's darkness.
Visit Beck's website or the Modern Guilt mini-site to find out more.
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