Beck
Sea Change
Geffen

Beck Hansen. Still a kid genius? Well, he's 32 years old by now, so the 'Kid' can be replaced by 'King'. He's got some musical Midas touch, because it seems his creativity is evergoing, evergrowing. Sea Change...Beck as King Neptune as well?

Beck's doing serious business again, as he did on Mutations 4 years back. Twang. Folk and country land. Is he trying to become the young Johnny Cash? Last time, on Midnite Vultures, it was the soul'n'funk-o-rama thing. Now it's back to the low talk, slow walk. Neat. Beck is the modern musical chameleon that maybe only David Bowie in his days could've matched. Sea Change is sheer brilliance from start to finish. Not much more to say. I'm not sure if it's as good or better than Mutations, but that doesn't matter. To mention some highlites I can for instance say the sad, swaying "Lonsome Tears", or "Lost Cause", or "It's All In Your Mind", or the Nick Drake-sounding "Round The Bend", and then the a-w-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-o-o-o-u-u-u-some "Sunday Sun" - his finest moment ever?

Beck is king! He had Bob Dylan for breakfast years back. And Elvis is long since gone, ended up a fat bastard he did. Macca have had one soya sausage too many. The Rolling Stones are geriatric. R.E.M. are just highflying - lyrically or in-flight sipping. And Mr. Bongo of U2 has grown fungus in his lederhosen. Wacko Jacko is nothing but plastico. I rest my case.

Copyright © 2002 Håvard Oppøyen