Beck - Colors

Beck
Colors
2017
Spotify

2014's Morning Phase was a beautifully composed, romantic, still and for the artist who usually more of an assimilator it felt singularly inspired. Winning album of the year was a shock to no one more than Beck being in the same category with Beyonce's Formation, however not to be deterred Beck has returned with quite possibly his most accessible album to date. With Beck you are usually in store for quite a bit of experimentation to arrive at the good stuff and quite honestly before Morning Phase it seemed like Beck would never regain the sort of pop success he experienced early. These new songs bop and have great pacing almost sounding like a poppy version of Animal Collective. However there is still plenty going on for the fans of Beck's intricacies. "I'm So Free" has about 10 iterations, part electronic, part call and response and part just scorcher of a pop-rock song. You can imagine a version of this song where it's just pure sugar, basic and uninspired but in Beck's hands it becomes something totally different and wholly enjoyable. "Dear Life" a raucous piano jam with lyrics a la Elliot Smith is also a bright spot. What makes Beck's style so intriguing is his distance from them. It feels like Beck at times doesn't know what era He is making music in and just sort of stumbles on something great. This is obviously ridiculous for a person who has dedicated their life to creating music but, his affable bumbling persona still remains intact. There are also these moments where it feels like Beck is so close to something great, but something (largely himself) seems to get in the way.

"No Distraction" is a great example of this because in the bridge there is the flash of something really spectacular but in the end the track ends up being sort of one note. He brings it back around with "Dreams (Colors Mix)" which absolutely cooks putting a beat on the floor that is irresistible. "Wow" however is on par with some of the worst songs that Beck has ever written. It breaks whatever flow and good will the album had garnered up until that point and smashes it to bits. You keep waiting for it to shift, to get better, but it just never happens. It is almost like He is trying to repair the damage of "Wow" for the rest of the record and despite all his efforts (and they are pretty good) it never quite recovers. "Fix Me" somewhat returns to the production of Morning Phase with this vast sweeping quality. It's a haunting track but the lyrics feel a bit infantile. Colors is a really solid record from Beck even though it does have some glaring issues. For the man who never seems to be done experimenting this feels like an experiment in the normal, but in trying to be normal He manages to find something different yet again.

7.8 out of 10