Beck – Morning Phase
Beck
Morning Phase
Capitol Records, 2014
Beck Hansen has always been a folk singer at heart. Everything else, Midnight Vultures, Loser, all of it was real too, but, those were distractions Beck was playing at. Even at the center of Mellow Gold, the acoustic musings which were considered asides at 
Beckthe time, turned out to be greater core values.
Morning Phase is light as mountain air and twice as refreshing. Stark and spare as the California desert, which cultivated this variety of cowboy flavored folkiness, he calls up landmarks to create his own masterpieces.
“Heart is a Drum” cribs references to Hank Williams Lost Highway, and feels like he found an overlooked gem of a tune by post Mama’s and Papa’s era John Phillips.
“Blackbird Chain” has orchestral touches elevating it suddenly to something grander, larger than it would ever considered possible on its own. And “Country Down” feels So Crosby, Stills & Nash, you’d almost wonder if Joni Mitchell doesn’t share songwriting in there somewhere. This is a quiet release for waking up or coming down and reflecting on where the last twenty years might have gone.
But for all the alarmists uncertain with what to do or say about the suddenly serious young man from Sea Change, wondering what happened to their favorite class clown and his musings on the logic of sex laws, he’s not here.
The person who did show up sort of resembles him. And he’s trying on middle age for size; you know, being a grown up; and you know, it suits him.
