Beck - Morning Phase

Beck - Morning Phase

Score: 8.5

Sounds like: Sea Change with a sunnier attitude

If Beck's Sea Change was an album for late, lonely nights, Morning Phase is the cathartic morning after. The comparisons are easy to make, not only because Beck himself described the new album as a companion piece to Sea Change, but because they share so much in tone and sound that one could imagine the two being long lost twins of a double-disc release.

In full disclosure, I will admit to a certain bias on my end - Sea Change was released during my formative high school years and remains one of my all-time favorites. Much like movie sequels, follow-ups to such meaningful albums can be a dicey proposition; the desire for more has to be tempered with the possibility - in most cases probability - that the new material just won't or can't stand up to the original. I'm thrilled to say Morning Phase is not a disappointment; it comes within a hair of reaching the heights of it's brilliant predecessor.

Morning Phase eases in with the swelling, symphonic "Cycle," a prelude that, appropriately, sounds like the first blinking moments of a Sunday morning. Were the album to open with the second track, "Morning," you might be inclined to think you accidentally put on the wrong disc - it's guitar chords and tempo mirror Sea Change's "Golden Age" almost exactly. I wouldn't put it past Beck to do this on purpose (and really, it must have been, given how strikingly similar the tracks are), perhaps a way to confirm to the listener that, yes, this album will share the same DNA as its ten-year senior. The differences in the songs, though, are just as telling. While "Golden Age" was drenched in melancholy, as were the songs that followed, "Morning" feels like an awakening - the dawn of something better.

It's appropriate, then, that the first words on Morning Phase are "Woke up this morning," and the rest of the tracks, save for the arresting, ominous "Wave," share the same wide, bleary-eyed wonder. Songs like "Heart Is a Drum" and "Blackbird Chain" trade in heavy melancholy for a rambling, west coast wistfulness, while standouts "Blue Moon" and "Unforgiven" anchor the middle of the album with dense, lush melodies sounding like Sea Change tracks that decided to let a little sun poke through.

And, so, what to make of "Wave," with its cascading violins that continually ebb and flow over Beck's brooding baritone? In the context of Morning Phase it feels in many ways out of place. Still, it's a dramatic, stunning turn, and a clear argument that Beck could and should lead a symphony at every live performance moving forward.

The small gaps that separate Morning Phase from Sea Change are in emotional heft and complexity of composition. The songs on Morning Phase feel less fussed over - the melodies take less dramatic shifts in tone and feature a sheen that was frequently upended by the piercing violins and plucking guitars weaving their way through Sea Change.

Similarly, while both albums feature some of the most moving songs you're likely to find in the current pop culture landscape, Sea Change carried a heavier, more affecting load - necessarily, as it it was the result of a (reportedly) staggering heartbreak for Beck. The songs on Sea Change wallowed, but did so in such a beautiful way that it was hard not to get swept away in his sadness. Morning Phase is more hopeful, but as a result comes off a bit breezier.

Still, no one wants to wallow forever. If the night is always darkest before the dawn, Beck has now captured both moments in stunning, evocative form.