Sea Change (2002) by Beck
The breakup album (or song) is a music industry concept used by established artists to signal maturity/introspection by drawing on ostensibly autobiographical material (Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know). But over the past few decades, it’s been commodified to death, drained of its novelty and used mostly to sell tabloids. At the turn of the century though, it still had some caché, and it’s understandable why Beck might have been interested in projecting “maturity” around that time. In the 90s, he had gotten a reputation as a goofy, wisecracking, ironic whiz kid after Loser was co-opted as a slacker anthem (even though it was about begging your girlfriend to kill you), and a lot of people probably just thought he was one of the guys from Hanson. So in 2002 he pivoted to a singer-songwriter in the mode of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, James Taylor and Nick Drake, and we got Sea Change, a.k.a. BECK GOES ACOUSTIC.
Beck’s early material was a pastiche of different genres and forms: funk/soul, country, psychedelia, Mantronix-era hip hop, dobra slide guitar, Van Morrison’s early garage rock (Them), drum breaks, Gary Wilson, turntablism, stacked horn charts and a million other little oddities. It was defined by its cut-and-paste approach (essentially switching between mini-songs): high-volume, multi-layered sampling and loops juxtaposing wildly different musical styles in rapid succession. It was comparable to surfing channels on a radio station, and it was a sound that owed a lot to The Beastie Boys album Paul’s Boutique, produced by the incomparable Dust Brothers, who (not coincidentally) also produced Beck’s Odelay, Midnite Vultures and Guero. Sea Change, by contrast, is a collection of intimate soft rock numbers, mostly ballads, with instrumentation favoring steel string acoustic guitars, slower tempos and simple 4/4 beats. It’s a template a lot of singer-songwriters use when they’re going for a stripped-down aesthetic, and thankfully, Beck’s lyrics and melodies are strong enough to survive a minimalist approach.
The album starts off great. The Golden Age is a quiet lullaby built around gorgeous bells and a sound like wind in the background. The lyrics have a kind of country flavor: “let the desert wind / cool your aching head”, and it’s an interesting choice for a first track, since it sounds more like a coming-down than a revving-up.
Paper Tiger is cold funk with chamber-pop touches, and one of Beck’s all-time best songs. His father, David Campbell, handles the orchestral arrangements, and they add a LOT to the song, but what’s truly impressive is how comprehensively Beck and producer Nigel Goldrich recreate the entire production sound of the song Melody, from Serge Gainsbourg’s controversial 1971 concept album about a pedophilic relationship, Ballad of Melody Nelson. The pure, clean, bass tone. The string-swell big-finish. The plucky, staccato, brushstroke drums. The spoken-word vocals delivered 0.2 millimeters from the microphone. And Beck’s imitation equals, if not surpasses, its predecessor. Round the Bend similarly sounds a lot like Nick Drake’s River Man, with its up-and-down folk/blues riff, similar chord progression and string arrangement.
Little One is another highlight towards the end of the album. I’m not crazy about the verses, but it’s got a huge, ascending chorus, and an unbelievably good piano solo at the end (credited to Robert Joseph Manning Jr).
Critics seem to have found Beck’s transition to maturity pretty convincing, and I guess that’s a positive. But here’s the thing: I actually LIKE immature Beck, and that’s not an insult. I think Beck’s fun, goofy side (Odelay) is more contagious than his introspective side (which is a little odd, given that the lyrics here are much more direct). Also, I’m sorry, but the album suffers from schmaltz. The two weakest tracks, Guess I’m Doing Fine and Lonesome Tears, in my opinion, start to over-emote in a heavy-handed way:
It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine
~
Lonesome tears
I can’t cry them anymore
I can’t think of what they’re for
If Hank Williams sang that, it would be great, because it would be twangy and simple and straightforward and there wouldn’t be any melodrama to it. But Beck just comes off as self-serious. Sea Change is usually praised for communicating intense pain, but to me, it feels almost unemotional. I actually think it’s more interesting as an example of how to turn personal, confessional material into cold detachment (a few overwrought lyrics aside). Beck slurs the vocals like 50 Cent after he got shot, and the overall impression is one of emotional distance from the material.
Still, I have to give this record a good grade. I absolutely love the drums and strings, the dampened snares, the elongated reverb on all the vocals, the bass sound, etc. Beck is a really great melodist. Nearly every song here has a strong vocal part. And despite its minimal aesthetic, none of these songs sound like demos. Sea Change is less creative than his earlier releases, and I like the first half of the album better than the second, but the good cuts are top-shelf. It gets a 3.5/5, because I like Beck, and I’m in a good mood. Not his masterpiece (that would be the less pretentious Odelay), but he deserves credit for dropping the irony and soul-bearing without a gimmick.
Favorite songs: The Golden Age, Paper Tiger
- Jackson Diianni, November 2022
