Modern Guilt
Beck
Score:69
Reviewer: Justin Pearsall
Label: Interscope Records (USA), XL Recordings (UK)
Reviewed: Jul 17th '08, Released:2008
From the slacker anthems of Mellow Gold, to the sexed-out disco of Midnight Vultures and the melancholia of Sea Change, the only thing consistent about Beck’s first five studio albums was their continual quality. Whereas genre-jumping by other artists has seemed more like a pre-meditated move, Beck’s evolutions had, until this point, always appeared natural.
Then came Guero and The Information. While both were spins on sounds he’d flirted with earlier, these were the first releases to sound forced. Specifically, these latter records confused something Beck had been a master of: recognising that advancement can only be as good as the songs and melodies on offer.
With this background in mind, Modern Guilt is an important album for Beck. While it fails to match the heights of previous classics, and is partly a mix-n-match of many of his previous styles, it is a return to more unforced performances. Put simply, Beck’s latest sounds comfortable, and although comfort rarely makes for great records, in Beck’s case it has made for a return to form.
Like the Dust Brothers/Nigel Goodrich collaborations of the past, Modern Guilt is as much defined by the contributions of the producer as it is by the idiosyncrasies of its songwriter. Fleshed out by the fuzzy retro vibe that Danger Mouse has perfected with Gnarls Barkley, the distinctive stamp of Danger Mouse is as pronounced on the more organic material, such as album highlight and title track ‘Modern Guilt’, as it is on the more sprawling numbers, such as the Amnesiac-esque ‘Walls’.The album’s best moments are those that combine the rhythmic talents of Danger Mouse with the supreme importance of melody.
Overall, Modern Guilt is a solid Beck album. For any newbies to Beck its mish-mash status will serve as an easy introduction into a varied and important career. For Beck fans it will likely entertain but not astonish. But perhaps most importantly, it suggests that the missteps of Guero and The Information were exactly that, missteps, not a continuing trend.
