|
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy "The Diamond Jubilee - A Classical Celebration Album" for just £2.50. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
If there’s one thing that’s proved consistent about Beck Hansen, it’s that every fresh record will be a curveball, and so it is with Modern Guilt. If 2006’s The Information felt like a return to familiar Odelay territory, a gleaming beats-and-raps record with an eerie futuristic twist perhaps inspired by its maker’s interest in Scientology, its follow-up feels like a step out again into uncharted territory. Recorded with the help of hip-hop beat-maker turned multi-talented producer Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton, Modern Guilt is a foggy, sometimes distant-sounding affair apparently inspired by canyon-dwelling psychedelic rock, conspiracy theories, and end-of-the-world angst. "You and me hit by a test of white evil/Watching the jet planes go by", he strains, urgently, on "Chemtrails", eyes fixed to the sky. "Orphans" and "Walls", two songs recorded with Cat Power’s Chan Marshall feel like a bit of a missed opportunity, Chan’s vocals pushed too far back in the mix. But Danger Mouse’s beats are a delight, giving what could be quite morose numbers like "Gamma Ray" a skippy, vintage beat group feel. All in all, it’s not Beck at his most engaging or playful, but there’s a thoughtful, mature quality to Modern Guilt that you don’t find when he’s playing postmodern prankster, and it’s got much to recommend it. --Louis Pattison
Review
The ever-youthful Beck has left Geffen and washed up on the friendlier shores of XL. A new label might signal a new approach on this, his eighth album. Well, partly.
It certainly means that Beck's got himself a new producer. It always seem strange that he - the sonic collagist that he is - needed a producer in the first place. Maybe it was just the discipline of someone who knew when to curtail the magpie tendencies that he needed. Here he's joined at last by Danger Mouse, bringing a slightly more organic feel while tightening up the usual kitchen sink approach. Two tracks also feature Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) on floating vocal accompaniment.
At the centre of Beck's universe beats a heart of purest nerdiness. This geekiness is both his strength and his failing. Musically his refusal to accept boundaries and deliver up the patent folky martian hip-hop was what made us love him in the first place. However when it comes to genuine songcraft Beck's never been easy to judge. While his ability to give us tunes of heartbreaking beauty was never in doubt his lyrics are less easy to admire. The cut and paste approach to words seemed playful when pitched against the peppy melange of days of yore. Matched with more conventional pop their obtuseness can tend to give you a headache. Do they actually MEAN anything, or is it just post modern tosh?
This is a transitional album at best. Tracks like the rubber-riffed Gamma Ray or mechanoid funk of Youthless could easily be from either of his last two albums. The lovely Volcano, joins the ranks of maudlin, tired songs that always seem to close his albums. Yet the broken beats of Replica, the odd, string quartet 'n drum spaghetti westernisms of Walls or the Zombies-like single Chemtrails all indicate that the world's funkiest Scientologist has plenty more tricks up his sleeve.
At just over 30 minutes, Modern Guilt is a slight addition in the Beck canon, and it feels vaguely ephemeral and lacking in depth. Where he goes next is anyone's guess. But it'll never be less than fascinating. For now let's just enjoy the fact that we're invited to enjoy the journey as well. A far from guilty pleasure. --Chris Jones
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Absolutely amazing album.
I originally bought it on download, but I've now bought the proper CD as compressed MP3 really doesn't do justice to all the layers and vibes going on.
Easily Beck's best album since the glorious Odelay. Definately his most accessible. Yes it is only half an hour long, but when you listen to it you don't feel short changed, it's half an hour beauty.
Innovative, wise and most of all you can dance to it.
Love it.
I originally bought it on download, but I've now bought the proper CD as compressed MP3 really doesn't do justice to all the layers and vibes going on.
Easily Beck's best album since the glorious Odelay. Definately his most accessible. Yes it is only half an hour long, but when you listen to it you don't feel short changed, it's half an hour beauty.
Innovative, wise and most of all you can dance to it.
Love it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I had loved Beck's earlier albums all the way until 'Sea Changes', as it was just naff (in my opinion, though i know others will disagree) and then he went toooo much into the hip-hop/techno/electro style and all his music started to sound the same. Which was a shame for an artist the caliber of Beck.
BUT....
......HE HAS RETURNED!
Modern Guilt is soooo much more like the old Beck i know and love. The songs are simple and there's more guitar involved. It's much more in the vein of Odelay than say...Midnight Vultures or Mutations - and it's great because of it!
If like me, you'd lost some faith in the music of Mr Hansen, then rejoice because although he's on a new label, this is VINTAGE Beck!
BUT....
......HE HAS RETURNED!
Modern Guilt is soooo much more like the old Beck i know and love. The songs are simple and there's more guitar involved. It's much more in the vein of Odelay than say...Midnight Vultures or Mutations - and it's great because of it!
If like me, you'd lost some faith in the music of Mr Hansen, then rejoice because although he's on a new label, this is VINTAGE Beck!
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The most impressive Beck record since Sea Change, for this genre bending artist has finally produced a record that, rather than land erratically at whatever musical influence echoes his current feelings, is a culmination of all his styles. Melodic folk, post-modern alternative indie, whatever you call it, it's brilliant.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Soul of a Man...
Anyone who has listened to Beck and any one of his albums over his career can tell you that he has always made very idiosyncratic sounds to go with each album; there is no one Beck... Read more
Published 3 months ago by DPVC
BRILLIANT!!!!
I was enthralled as I ripped open the packaging to find an extraordinary case. An empty case. It has brown on it it has grey on it it has black on it and it has white on it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Alex Pughe
another great one
another great album from Beck, I like everything he does so I am probably not the best reviewer but so far he hasn't astray from the path
Published on 6 Dec 2009 by N. F. Barbosa
Existential psychedelia
After two albums that saw Hansen subdue his chameleon tendencies in favour of pusuing a sound that was distinctly 'Beck', Modern Guilt sees him back breaking new ground. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2009 by J. Jenkins
10 songs, 34 minutes, one of his best!
One thing is for sure that when you buy a Beck album, you never really know what to expect, such is the multi-faceted nature of the artist, and you definitely have to approach most... Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2008 by A. Sweeney
Pleasent surprise
Couldnt really be bothered with another beck album boring me to sleep none the less i was given this cd as a gift and well..............what a surprise! Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2008 by D. Williams
Competent, but no classic
'Modern Guilt' has the feeling of an 'in-between' album, although having said that, Beck's last truly great album was 'Sea Change' - 'The Information' and 'Guero' had moments of... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2008 by A. Wright
Unfairly labeled a return to form, as he was always deadly
Like I said above, nearly all the reviews I've read for Modern Guilt have praised it as a return to form, "best since Sea Change", and that sort of garbage. Read more
Published on 29 July 2008 by Magnum Valentino
A beautiful reminder of Beck's genius
I can't really see what people are complaining about. Beck has spent the last countless years reeling out album after album of quality, thought provoking and truly original... Read more
Published on 24 July 2008 by A. BUNCALL
Modern guilt of past crimes
I like any hardcore fan of Beck from the start, stopped listening to him when the atrocity that was Midnight Vultures came out. Read more
Published on 21 July 2008 by Ziramen Tao
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
