Review: Beck’s Modern Guilt - Not As Good As They Say

By: Ryan | in: Music |

Beck
[Originally posted on the RSL Blog]

Before I go very far, I hope this isn’t your first read of the RSL. We don’t do negative pieces for the most part. We get hundreds of albums each year for review. And rather than to spend time ripping apart bad projects my feeling is that the readers will be better served by us indicating a truly great band that no one is writing about and desperately needs the exposure. So no slash and burn pieces. It costs me the prurient readership and in it’s place a decent-sized, more appreciative and enlightened indie reader base. Suits us fine.

Then Beck, who I respect very much, had to go and put out this album. You see, I’m compelled to review Beck’s work. He’s important to music - a polarizing force (whether you realize it or not) and he has been for some time. Plus, I feel personal connection. In my little group of friends, years ago - I discovered Beck and played the shit out of those old albums harder than anyone I knew. And, Beck connected to the evolving artist and the shifting sounds of his career - the man kept it vibrant and fresh…. Until now.

The Addition of a World-Class Producer: Expectations for this one were SUPER HIGH based on the noted addition of super producer Danger Mouse (2008 King Maker for his work on The Black Keys’ sensational Attack & Release - currently ranked Record of the Year.) I think I reasonably expected to like this one as much as Guero. Boy, was I setting myself up for a fall….

It Could Be Worse: I think this is where I reassure you how much I really don’t hate this album now. Not at this point - and I don’t… but I did just a week ago.

I would say my thermometer is reading Average to Decent now. Very middle of the road… Disappointing for Beck and for Danger Mouse… But better than most new material released today under major hype, sadly. Most of Beck’s records - top songs that lead into even better ones - a few profound moments. I listened intently, waiting for something brilliant to occur. It Never Did.

Rolling Stone magazine gave Modern Guilt a 4-Star Review. What the hell were you listening to Melissa Maerz? A professional writer, Maerz repeatedly uses superlatives painting a picture for this modern Emperor has No Clothes album… “… feels like the perfect….”, “seems custom-made…..”, “… the funkiest”….” (vomit.)

Some of the songs had decent lyrics but you had to wade through disassembled, narcissistic drone (cool when it works, noise when it doesn’t) and symptoms of the artist’s mid-life crisis. I will let the writer Maerz choke on her own words; “Taken as a whole, the album’s first five songs stand among Beck’s strongest work.” - Lady please… Even if you were deeply moved by Modern Guilt, lay off the Corporate Tool schtick….

You are free to love music as you please but there is no way that the first five songs of this record can touch the stuff Beck released in the six years prior to 2005. Absolutely impossible. The comparison should never have been made.

FOUR STARS? So, Modern Guilt has the Rolling Stone writer absolutely beside herself and I, as a rabid Beck fan, was feeling seriously left out wondering if I even like four songs on the record. (Actually at that time, I liked only emblematic “Gamma Ray” with its goofy surf a-go-go beat. I suspect the general let down on the record colored/poisoned some of the later tracks.) I ended up really diggin, “Profanity Prayers” too. It’s got the beat and has more of a stolid sophistication than its predecessors from previous albums.

Beck - Profanity Prayers

This is a good one, but at this point, you’re 90% through a 10-track album you paid $14 dollars for. It’s not enough to save the project. Certainly not a four-star album.

I am Beck’s Adoring Public and I will be the first to say, “We were slighted.” I sit there listening to Modern Guilt (again, not a horrible album, just a completely average ten track record with a couple of decent songs) and question my loyalty to the artist. “Is there something wrong with me? I’m supposed to like this!….”

But you see, music is supposed to reach out to you - not the other way around. Sometimes the people need to say, “Nay” and the Emperor has No Clothes.

There, it needed to be said.

Album Report Card: 2.75 Stars (5 Stars)

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Posted on August 13, 2008

Comments

4 Responses to “Review: Beck’s Modern Guilt - Not As Good As They Say”

Charbarred on August 13th, 2008 12:15 am

I completely agree.
The problem with Beck is that he either makes completely impersonal records that only showcase production skills or great masterpieces the likes of Sea Change and Mutations that show us that he’s actually human.
I love the old stuff, and he was a great visionary fusing unlikely genres together at the time. But I think he should really concentrate on finding his soul at this stage of his career.
There’s not going to be another Odelay, simply because it won’t have the same impact. The latest album is much of the same. If you’ve never owned a Beck album you might enjoy it, but comparatively it’s weak.

DThompson on August 13th, 2008 7:40 pm

I gotta say I didn’t care for Guero much either, I think both albums are mediocre, not without their good songs, but not spectacular stop the presses efforts. “Profanity Prayers” is definitely the best song on this one, possibly the only good song.

Jeff Caldwell on August 14th, 2008 4:44 pm

He has a very Dylan feel to the album cover and the tunes touch on the retro which is funny because the diehard Beck fans are reacting like Dylan’s when he went electric. Was he expecting this reaction?

I think this album is a great departure, simple and straight forward. Beck is always changing his game, as soon as he starts to get formulaic he throws a new or rediscovered sound in your face. When you’ve created timeless masterpieces such as Sea Change, it’s almost impossible to achieve that level again and I think unfair to expect it.

Take it for what it is, better than most new material released today, your words, not mine…

Ryan on August 15th, 2008 4:55 pm

Hey Jeff,

As the author of the piece, I am the first to support your right to a differing opinion. I take umbrage, however, when you misquote me. I wrote that this album is still, “better than most new material released today under major hype…”

Modern Guilt is barely average… (the budget this album likely consumed to produce a half-hour of music is just appalling.) And while the record is better than many popular releases, it’s certainly inferior than at least two dozen or more new independent albums I have reviewed on <a href=”http://ryanssmashinglife.blogspot.com/”my webpage this year. There’s a whole lot better out there. No question. And Beck should be criticized for it.

Jeff - I like where your logic is headed (the clever comparison of Dylan’s electric set at Newport and his “electric tour” through Europe in 1965) but the comparison is mortally flawed. Beck’s audience doesn’t suffer from the pre-conceptions that Dylan’s did at that time. The unprecedented exposure that 2008’s audiences take in - to all kinds of music and influences - cannot be understated or devalued.

The bottom line is that Modern Guilt is a far less profound album than it should be… than it could be. A message to the artist and his label: You shouldn’t come back from a hiatus to cash in. And in doing so, you leaned on three good tracks and seven mediocre ones…. You started to lean, and then you fell.