Beck - Modern Guilt

XL

Reared on acid-laced milk, Beck’s mind is a hallucinogenic wasteland, its canyons echoing to sounds bizarre, its lands stalked by strange creatures. Flitting from psych-folk to hymnal pop, stark electronica to offbeat orchestration Modern Guilt is unstable terrain. It is also one of the diabolical wizard’s most spellbinding creations. Produced by Danger Mouse, the marshalling of noise here is swiss-watch precise and yet retains a loose, opiated feel. There is something intangible about this music, like sand through the hands, it’s always slipping away. Recent single ‘Chemtrails’ is a case in point, here Beck’s languorous drawl is wrapped around plonked piano and sepulchral rhythms.

The percussive playing is sublime, note also the ricocheting bullet drums of ‘Orphans’ and perpetually squirming bass of ‘Gamma Ray’. It is such pristine musicianship combined with gleeful imagination and a fluidity of styles that elevates this record to the very highest reaches of the Beck catalogue. The agitated funk-rock shuffle of ‘Youthless’, the glitch-tronic meanderings of ‘Replica’, the flick knife guitar viciousness of ‘Soul Of A Man’ and the slow, steady sliding under of the closing ‘Volcano’, all ethereal harmonies and quiet resignation. Modern Guilt flows by like a beautiful daydream. Francis Jones

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DOWNLOAD: ‘CHEMTRAILS’, ‘YOUTHLESS’, ‘VOLCANO’.
FOR FANS OF: CARIBOU, THE SLEEPY JACKSON, SIXTIES PSYCHEDELIA.

Issue #51 - I Told You This Would Be A Good Issue

Featuring Biffy Clyro, Of Montreal, Duke Special, Frightened Rabbit, Cold War Kids, Jay Reatard, Pat Mills, and more.