Beck
Sea Change CD - Geffen

Beck has always been a misfit in the trend-hopping nature of popular culture. Regardless of how many platinum albums this L.A. native certifies, he still stands as an influential figure worlds apart from the narrow, conformed template of typical pop dynamics. Ever since the ubiquitous hit “Loser,” Beck’s been juggling genres and satisfying his unquenchable appetite in more musical food groups than the puppet of Nineties pop music has entertained. But after changing the backdrop from an acoustic sing-a-long to a hip-hop nightclub and finally to a disco dance floor, if Beck’s proven one thing it’s this: the man simply - and consistently - defies the norm. And, this time, it’s telling in its very title. Sea Change operates on a pastoral landscape of heartfelt lyrics, melancholic acoustics and folk-tinged twangs that is hindered from overproduction even when the songs wear their sensitive hearts on their sleeves. It may Beck’s most decisive cut into the singer/songwriter schtick, but where he’s previously stuck an innovative IV in weary, hospitalized genres to jumpstart them back to life, Sea Change simply seems tired and exhausted of itself. (Ryan Potts)
www.beck.com