Beck: Modern Guilt Track Breakdown!

July 9, 2008

Ahhh, Beck. Nice to see you again. Thanks for finally releasing your newest album, Modern Guilt, yesterday on July 8. It's a bit of a blip at only 33 minutes in length (almost half the length of his last three albums), but it pumps out some great songs. It's the first time Beck has worked with a producer other than Nigel Godrich or The Dust Brothers - for his previous seven albums he alternated between the two - this time around he's paired with Danger Mouse, who's also produced stuff for Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad And The Queen and is, of course, half of Gnarls Barkley, who've become more ubiquitous than Charles Barkley himself.

My friend Vivek (another Beck diehard!) and I held a mini-listening/launch party to mark the release of Modern Guilt this week, and here's our breakdown of its ten tracks. We rated each track out of 10 (on first listen!) for a final score out of 100, with comments for each. Let's do this!!

1. Orphans f. Cat Power
Kat: "Where's Cat Power? I was promised Cat Power. She's being underutilized here. This song doesn't stand out to me at all."

Vivek: 7.5
Kat: 6

2. Gamma Ray
Vivek: "Best track on the album - it should have been the single."
Kat: "If this isn't the next single I'll be pissed. This IS Beck. The lyrics are fantastic and the song is preposterously catchy."

Vivek: 10
Kat: 10

3. Chemtrails
Vivek: "I didn't appreciate it when it first came out, but listening to Chemtrails in this order, it's amazing."
Kat: "I have to agree. On its own and as a first single Chemtrails is forgettable. But it's so beautiful when you hear it sandwiched between these two songs."

Vivek: 10
Kat: 8

4. Modern Guilt
Vivek: "Surprisingly pleasant."
Kat: "This is really great. The riff reminds me of something Spoon might do. Beck's pulling off another sound, once again!"

Vivek: 7.5
Kat: 7.5

5. Youthless
Kat: "My next favourite song on the album, after Gamma Ray. This song is f**king ace. I just love it. Sinister and saucy. I can't stop going back to it."

Vivek: 6.5
Kat: 10

6. Walls f. Cat Power
Kat: "Once again, Cat Power adds nothing to the song. On top of that, this song is the worst on the album. I never want to hear it again."
Vivek: "Think about it though - when has Beck EVER done a collaboration or 'featuring' song? [scrolls through his discography]. Wow. Never before!"
Kat: "I guess collabos aren't his thing."

Vivek: 5
Kat: 4

7. Replica
Kat: "Another miss. This section of the album is losing me!"
Vivek: "On this song especially - imagine it without the drums. You might like it. I feel like I can HEAR the production in this. The good Beck songs from Midnite Vultures, you only notice all the stuff in the song after the one hundredth listen. With this you notice right away. It's distracting. Everything is just thrown on top of it."

Vivek: 4
Kat: 5

8. Soul Of A Man
Vivek: "Fade out?? Since when does Beck fade out of a song? Name me a song that fades out. He's never done it before."
Kat: "Weak. Not a fan of the fade out. I just want to hear what's next!"

Vivek: 4
Kat: 5

9. Profanity Prayers
Kat: "It's all right. It's got a good, enthusiastic beat and strong chorus, but it still doesn't touch Gamma Ray or Youthless for me."

Vivek: 5
Kat: 6.5

10. Volcano
Kat: "A nice finishing ballad. Way to close out the album, Beck!"

Vivek: 6
Kat: 8

Final Thoughts:

Vivek: "The album feels a little DAMP to me. Nothing really crisp or perfect or straight about it. It's kinda muddy and confusing, like torn construction paper."

Kat: "If you only listen to the album once, you'll be underwhelmed - only two songs stand out even remotely. But if you're patient in this digital age of throwaway songs, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much some of the other tracks grow on you!"

Vivek: 66/100
Kat: 70/100

Metacritic gives it a 76 (as of right now)

Posted by Kat at 01:57 PM | Comments (2)