BECK | SEA CHANGE
Most known for his free spirited character and sample-heavy music, Sea Change was a remarkable departure from Beck’s previous work. The album is a reflective dive into the themes of heartbreak, desolation, solitude, and loneliness. Gone were the quirky drum breaks and rapping, replaced with an outpouring of emotionally-charged balladry. This is what happens when a wounded artist trades in his turntables for an acoustic guitar.
Beck had recently found out his fiancé Leigh Limon was having an affair, and after their nine year relationship the couple fell apart. Beck lapsed into a period of melancholy and introspection during which he wrote the bleak acoustic-based songs that would surface as the Sea Change album. The album is a shining example of how the bloody purity of real life pain can never be replaced by artificial intent. The real stuff hurts, and Sea Change aches from start to finish.
Producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) finessed Beck’s performance in a way that had never been done, using bells, strings, and lush reverbs to embrace his newly found lower register singing style. Opener “The Golden Age” feels like a car ride in the evening, windows down and a desert summer wind blowing by. “Guess I’m Doing Fine” and “Lonesome Tears” unravel the last few threads of Beck’s relationship with eloquence and grace. There are no rockers, no drum loops, no freestyles. It’s all a theatre of one man’s agony, trying not to drown in his own wallowing while he self-heals.
Orchestral arrangements ebb and flow creating a breezy contrast to the acoustic guitar core. By the time Beck perks up for the album’s lead single, “Lost Cause” he can barely sing the chorus’ lyrics “Baby you’re a lost, baby you’re a lost cause. I’m tired of fighting, fighting for a lost cause.” From this moment he only falls further into his personal underworld as “End Of The Day” and “It’s All In Your Mind” further reinforce his withdrawal and alienation.
The darkest and most beautiful moment on the album sweeps in on “Round The Bend.” Beck’s verses are now become barely formed sentences and we feel the exact weight of his heart. It’s enough to cause chest pains. “We don’t have to worry, life goes where it goes.”
The chorus bleeds the vein further as he sings “babe, its your time now.” The barely-there melody adds to the wistful message and as he lands his drop of hope on the words “loose change…we could spend.” It is at this very point the album becomes its most arresting, thick and congealed. Obviously it can only get better from here.
The album slowly sobs to a close down the same terrain. The lyrics “you’re already dead to me now” are fairly on the nose by this point and we begin to sense that Beck needs to get it all out of system, and we start to hope his next couple albums may see a return to his old self. Not because Sea Change doesn’t deliver, but because we love him and want him to feel better.
Paper Tiger
3 oz Beefeater gin
1 oz Domaine de Canton ginger liquer
1/2 oz orange juice
1/2 oz apple juice
1/2 lemon juice
2 oz soda water
3 dashes of orange bitters.
*Shake all ingredients except the soda with ice. Strain into rocks glass with fresh ice. Top with soda. Garnish with a lemon wheel studded with cloves.