A Brief Review of Morning Phase by Beck

One of my favorite perks of working at a college radio station, is getting new releases before they are available to the general public. Needless to say, I was especially excited when I went through the mail today, and discovered that we received Morning Phase, the first new album from Beck in almost six years.

Now Beck is one of my favorite artists of all time. I've always admired how he is able to reinvent himself from album to album. You have the 70s funk/soul inspired album Midnite Vultures in contrast to the quiet self-reflective acoustic album Sea Change, and to top it all off, there is the classic 90s alternative cornerstone album, Odelay. Each album unique and amazing in their own way.

When the lead single from Morning Phase, Blue Moon was released, I was absolutely captivated. This song shows Beck revisiting his self-reflective period, which made me very excited because Sea Change is one of my favorite albums ever.




I popped the album into my CD player, and was treated to a familiar sound. The first full track on the album is entitled Morning, and it almost sounds like Beck very quietly samples part of a song on Sea of Change entitled: The Golden Age in this new track. Thus far I have listened to the album all the way through twice, and I cannot get enough of it. It seems like Morning Phase could be considered a direct sequel to Sea Change. The music is quiet, yet powerful, the lyrics show a man looking back on his life thus and self-reflecting on the choices he has made. Did I make the right decision? Can I live with these regrets I have? Some truly moving music!

It's been six years since we've had new music from Beck, but in my humble opinion it was well worth the wait. Here's a new single from the album entitled Waking Light: