A review of Beck's "Morning Phase"

Yes, I'll admit I would have been more excited if the newest Beck album, the first proper Beck album in five and a half years,* had been a continuation of Midnite Vultures, but I'll take a continuation of Sea Change with nary a qualm.
Ha!
I'll bet you thought this was going to be an outpouring of bilious vitrole!
Well, in your face, nobody, because I really, really like Morning Phase!
...although I do have, like, two qualms.

I'm not going to be the first nor the last to call this album gorgeous, epic, radiant, award winning, a triumph...because it is.
Maybe it'll even earn Beck another five-star rating from Rolling Stone!!!
EEK!!!
What a world!!!

I'm also not going to be the first or last to compare it to Sea Change, so let's get that out of the way: Morning Phase is denser than Sea Change, but the cloth it's woven from is brighter than that of Sea Change. While there's night on Sea Change, the closest thing we get to it on Morning Phase are those seconds right before the sun shows itself, when the sky is already lit, just not directly. The darkest song on here is "Unforgiven", and even that addresses the end of night. 

However, the strongest and most direct connection between Beck's ridiculously well-crafted 2002 opus, Sea Change, and this latest ridiculously well-crafted opus is the second track from Morning Phase, "Morning". The acoustic guitar, bright, plinking notes and ambient electronic echoes floating in the background are absolutely a reference, whether intentional or unintentional**, to "The Golden Age".
But, enough about Sea Change.

There are only a few tracks on Morning Phase that don't contain the words "morning", "sun", "day" or "light", and, each song, regardless of its lyrics, captures a different aspect of the sun's light.***
For example, "Heart Is A Drum" feels like mid-day light, more silvery, falling on a small, honest town as it goes about its day. The opener, "Cycle", and its fraternal twin, "Phase", are straight up representations of a sunrise, the notes sung by Beck and then transposed to strings by his father and long-time collaborator, David Campbell. "Cycle" is the perfect opener for Morning Phase.

The sunlight on "Blue Moon" feels older and more mature than the rest of the album, but still new; perhaps a decades old photograph of the sunrise in "Cycle" and "Phase". The sparkling guitar at the end does an amazing job of cutting through the dreamy, sleep-dusted atmosphere up to that point. I also love the piano on this as it lends such a sense of sincerity. And, like most tracks on this album, the myriads voices and vocalizations in the background add a sense of warmth and depth, depicting, in sound, yet another aspect of sunlight. 

Another relation to those two instrumental twins, "Wave", might be the simplest track on the album, but it's also one of the most stirring. There's something so brave and powerful about "Wave", something brazen about that one voice just set adrift in this soporific sea of strings, swallowed and dwarfed by the size of it. The lyrics, out of context, could fit on a moodier-than-usual Nine Inch Nails album, and the repeated chant of "isolation" is almost silly but for the setting. Narrow miss on that one.
As I mentioned before, the darkest track on here (sonically) is "Unforgiven", although it contains sunlight as well. I'm picturing the light in the sky just seconds before the sun crests the horizon and stings one's eyes. Or, maybe a dark dream in a sunlit room.

There is a tiny handful of songs I've yet to get into, namely the more-folky-than-I-prefer "Turn Away" and the more-country-than-I-prefer "Country Down". I'm not altogether worried though, I didn't love everything on Sea Change when I first listened to it either.

But then, there's "Waking Light". I don't like sweeping statements. So I did some thinking before I put this here. This is tied for my favorite Beck album closer.
You know how "Debra" is the perfect ending for the sweaty, glitter orgy that is Midnite Vultures? Thus is "Waking Light" for Morning Phase.**** In a recent NPR interview, Beck mentioned that he'd originally had "Waking Light" at the beginning of the record. I've never actually wanted to slap Beck until that moment. "Waking Light" is the perfect evolution of all those ambient vocalizations we've been hearing this entire time, the perfect evolution of Morning Phase as a whole; it has the light and the facets and the darkness inherent in the album in one, glorious, five minute song. And, just when you think it can't get any more perfect, because it's already perfect, that guitar comes in at the end, and your mind and body actually dissolve into pure sunlight.

Beck. 

You've just transmogrified your listeners into sunlight.

Brava.

One comparison I wish I could draw between Morning Phase and Sea Change is that Sea Change had that SACD release with a music video for each track and the album in stunning, jaw-dropping 5.1, but, guys, this a new, full length*****, really great Beck album.

With music written and played by Beck.

Beck Hansen.

The musician!

But I digress.

I want to pour Beck's vocals on Morning Phase over a stack of buttermilk pancakes and then eat those pancakes while listening to this album. They're just that thick and golden and syrupy and delicious.

What can I even say here? I'm completely biased because this is the first Beck album in half a fucking decade and I'm so starved for buttery, syrupy Beckcakes that of course I'm going to find a way to love it. 

Although, to be fair, Beck facilitated things nicely by making yet another career defining masterpiece.

That rascal.

Morning Phase is out next Tuesday.
Details and pre-orders and whatnot here.

* Song Reader? Yes, I have heard of it. It's a bunch of fucking sheet music.

** Most of the musicians on Morning Phase helped to craft Sea Change over ten years ago.

*** Like TV On The Radio's Nine Types of Light, but for just sunlight. Dig?

**** Is "Waking Light" a better song than "Debra"?

Whoa.

I can not and will not answer that.

That's like comparing sex and pizza. Both are important. Both are excellent. But both cannot be compared to one another, and you'd be a fool to try.

***** By today's deplorable "full length" standards. FILL THE DISC, YOU LAZY BLACKGUARDS.