Beck - Morning Phase

"isooooooolaaaaaaation. isooooooolaaaaaaation." my psychology is too fragile to handle this tbh

smoke less

smoke more

I listened to this whole thing at lunch on headphones, and two things kept coming up:

1) If this was not Beck I probably wouldn't make it through one of these songs.
2) Half of these songs sound like they are _this close_ to turning into the chorus for "Comfortably Numb". This happens in multiple songs.
3) It actually sounds like the arrangements are stripped down but in reality they are not, they are just boring enough to sound like nothing is happening.

Eh, that's three things. The album has turned my mind to mush.

This album is one monotonous, dreary blur. Good Starbucks music though, I'll give him that.

Emperor is right. Dull songs with REVERBbbbbbb in place of tunes or anything novel.

my reaction to the album oscillates between being mildly soothed and strongly disgusted

this album is like being given the choice between the blue pill and the red pill by someone who has somehow already managed to take the blue one. can't believe I just made a Matrix reference but that's simply where this album took me.

1) The three Beck songs baaderonixx posted are great.

2) Morning Phase sounds nothing like them.

**shrug**

I like it. It's not super exciting, but it sure is lovely.

^^ pretty much my reaction

blackbird chain slays

This is a really good album for mornings when you aren't fully awake yet. I still think it's boring but it gets better after repeated listens.

'Blackbird Chain' is probably my favorite song.

This is a really good album for mornings when you aren't fully awake yet

Hah just like Sea Change this sounds very much like hangover music

Sea Change : Morning Phase :: heartache : backache

Nothing to do with the musical content, so forgive the side-step from such discussions with this post, but this situation makes me quite frustrated as a music retailer...

Vinyl for this was horribly under-pressed, at least in the UK.

On the day of release (yesterday) there was just one single (speculative) copy on Amazon, via the marketplace, at £10,000. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morning-Phase-VINYL-Beck/dp/B00HHYEOV8/ I just cite that as evidence of the general scarcity on the first day of release, as no legitimate sellers (shops using Amazon marketplace, Amazon themselves, as examples) had enough copies to offer for sale beyond what had gone to curtailed/limited pre-orders.

Hard to fathom any decent reason why the record company et al would deliberately stick to a mere ~1000 copies on an album like this, when shops and online retailers and by extension the record-buying public were quite clearly clamouring for more. Well, I can think of reasons, but they're quite dispiriting.

St Vincent album is also in the same situation, from the same record company... http://www.amazon.co.uk/St-Vincent-VINYL/dp/B00H783104/

this is kind of a slog and the songs aren't great

but man this sounds like a million bucks! so well produced.

It does. I listened to it again this morning and it sounds so good. The arrangements are really nice. And the songs are great. And his singing is so good!

I listened to Stereopathetic Soul Manure again too. His voice is so nervous and wavy, and it's been a huge leap for him to get to this spot. I'm sure he doesn't want to hear/play some of those songs because the performances are super rough (though that is part of the charm). In a way it's sort of like Cornelius's artistic trajectory: more and more clinical recording techniques, and super-close attention to detail. Beck's earlier works are defiantly ramshackle and I think even if he makes a "party" album it will be the coolest, cleanest machine he can invent.

The problem with this album is that John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts exists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvM3D4XE9qM&feature=kp

somebody should ask him if some of that Morning Phase money will go to fund scientology's department of attack and general harassment . didn't listen, too bad for me.

the strings on "wave" sort of sound like homogenic-era björk imo

I heard a review of this album on NPR but thought it was a look back at 'Dark Side of the Moon'.

I like this more now that I can listen to the whole thing. Phase->Turn Away does it for me.

not heard sea change since it came out really but i like this more than i remember being into that album. the melodies seem less 'monotone'. or maybe its just that theres a lushness to how hes produced his vocals on this that does it for me (beck seems to sing 'better' these days). was expecting it to be really lame and transparently trying to court a specific audience but its a bit better than that.

its odd, even those other non album tracks like i wont be long, they all have a similar sheen to them. its the sound of nice, lush digital production, but not that expensive, its low-ish budget lushness. i wont be long is great though - chorus reminds me of i wanna be adored/stone roses, surprisingly.

none of these non album songs is all that novel or radical etc (at least not in the way his old stuff was) though, only defriended sounds like becks been listening to clams casino or some cloud rap stuff.

actually, i take that back - the extended version of gimme is pretty special. reminds me a little of mid-80s/parade-era prince.

I'm not really feeling this but then again "Midnite Vultures" was the last Beck album I was into.

actually, i take that back - the extended version of gimme is pretty special. reminds me a little of mid-80s/parade-era prince.

― StillAdvance, Wednesday, February 26, 2014 11:20 PM (Yesterday)

The extended versions of all of them are pretty great, IMO, but yeah, "Gimme" went from being not much of anything in its normal release, to something really special and unexpected in the 24-minute version.

What did you think of "NYC 73-78"?

woah "gimme" is great- where is this extended version?

This album seems to be what is known as 'polarising'.

This album is what some call "boring."

Luxuriously boring though. This is high-end, hand-woven, artisan tedium.

Gimme Extended version here maybe

http://plixid.com/2013/09/25/beck-gimme-single-2013-mp3/

the beck that I wish would return:

http://www.spin.com/sites/all/files/styles/style620_413/public/130730-Best-Lollapalooza-Beck.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I357vCLnHTM#t=46

Thanks, SNL, for not trying to appear funny in the slightest. Is that lady on the right in the show now?

yes.

She isn't funny.

She's pretty funny.

bazinga.

Well, not in that promo. But in general she's pretty funny. Her 'Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started Talking to at a Party' character was great.

Sounds like a riot.

Ha, I realized as I typed it out that the name of the character was going to make it look much less funny than it actually was. But I also realized I'm defending an SNL cast member on a Beck thread and, why?

By the look of this, Beck is turning into Capt Beefheart in his demeanor

beck is looking plastic and inanimate as ever... look at that perfectly sculpted hairdo. ever since the Mutations cover, his projected image has been well dubious to me.

By the look of this, Beck is turning into Capt Beefheart Crunch in his demeanor

Fwiw, that hair doesn't look so much perfectly sculpted as it does a combover.

Oh shit. That's what's with those fucking hats. Beck is bald!