Beck - Colors

[alan nagsworth]

Yikes. I know Beck has been on something of a downward trajectory into safer and more accessible music over the last ten years, but even by those standards, and even approaching this for what it is (an out-and-out big production pop record), Colors really sucks.

I've been excited about this for a while as, in all honesty, I still think Modern Guilt is a great pop album - I've always been a fan of Danger Mouse's work and despite a lot of people saying it's a relatively soulless Beck affair, the majority of that album ticks a lot of boxes for me - and the two tracks leading up to its release, Wow and Dear Life, are both solid tunes, particularly the latter which I think is very good. Sadly, almost everything else here is abruptly (here's that word again) soulless. Just utterly bland. Pretty much none of the tunes hold my attention past the second verse.

I GUESS BECK HAD ONE TO MANY ORGONE INJECTIONS WHEN HE WROTE THIS ONE EH GUYS HAHAHA

[Kane Jones]

Odd, I'm very much off pop music and formulaic songs at the moment, but I find this album joyous. What's even weirder is I generally prefer Beck when he's at his more plaintive and melancholy (Sea Change, Mutations, Morning Phase). Really enjoying this record though.

[thugler]

Odd, I'm very much off pop music and formulaic songs at the moment, but I find this album joyous. What's even weirder is I generally prefer Beck when he's at his more plaintive and melancholy (Sea Change, Mutations, Morning Phase). Really enjoying this record though.

This!

I was inclined not to like it as the production is ludicrously slick but it's just a lovely pop record and that bit different to what he's done before. I don't like wow but the rest of the album is delightful, it's mercifully short too, just whizzes by with such energy

[selectivememory]

A general rule for me with Beck albums is that there will be four or five songs that I'll absolutely adore, and the rest will be utterly forgettable (there are exceptions, but this is how it usually is for me). Anyway, that's pretty much how I feel about Colors.

I think "Seventh Heaven" is the highlight of the album, but I also like "Colors", "Wow", "Up All Night" and "Dreams". The rest of it is very bland though.

I do quite like Beck's output in the last ten years. Modern Guilt is great, and The Information and Morning Phase both have some of my favourite Beck songs on them, amongst the mediocrity.

[Bazooka]

Haven't listened to Beck since Modern Guilt, of which I can remember one song Orphans. He was quite often described as the second coming of alternative music, but I never got that impression. Always have an open ear though.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I've been a passionate Beck fan since his redneck swamp music but Modern Guilt is where I end. Colors really is just like a lot of formula pop masquerading as Indie that 6 Music pump out day in day out. Boring. I never thought I'd find Beck boring.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Didn't get on with Morning Phase - which I just found dull - but this new one is almost entirely dreadful. The vast majority of tracks are completely lacking in character.

[alan nagsworth]

A BALANCED VIEW FROM THIS? IN A CHIMP'S COCK

[Kane Jones]

A BALANCED VIEW FROM THIS? IN A CHIMP'S COCK

Can I just say at this point; I really like the new John Maus album? Saw you slagging it like some kind of cheap ho.

The chorus of I'm So Free from Colors is fucking great. Just leaps out and makes me grin from ear to ear. I'd say it's pretty much wall to wall glossy bangers. However, as with most albums I instantly like, it'll probably have a short shelf life. My favourite albums tend to be the ones that take a few listens to really bed in.

[Bazooka]

Just listened to this whilst cooking a Moussaka. Very average, not badly produced just nothing going on here that another thousand other electro pop artists aren't doing.

[alan nagsworth]

Can I just say at this point; I really like the new John Maus album? Saw you slagging it like some kind of cheap ho.

Hey, I elaborated on that with very fair and rational criticisms! I came up with at least four or fives different ways to describe exactly why it sucks.

Just listened to this whilst cooking a Moussaka. Very average, not badly produced just nothing going on here that another thousand other electro pop artists aren't doing.

I have a problem with the production, particularly since there is a real dissonance between the extreme sheen on every song - higher in value than anything Beck's done to date - and the sheer lack of anything else behind it. It's like seeing a beautiful vista reflected in the eyes of of a lobotomy patient and asking what they think of the view and just getting drool as a reponse.

[Straight Faced Customer]

Maybe The Information will turn out to be Beck's last 'weird' LP. That said, he released some odd little tunes on wax a few years ago e.g. Defriended, which would be a great evenue for him to go down. Experimental music, without the self-conscious kookiness of either Odelay or The Information.

As for Colors - it has some great tunes. It's not the fun, party album which people were expecting. The days of Midnite Vultures are long gone, sadly.

I'm not sure how this would sound if it was by another '90s indie artist. Beck's evergreen sort of voice sells the slick 'pop' ambitions of it all. But if Eels tried it out, for example, it obviously wouldn't quite work.

The production is great, especially on Up All Night. There's a lot going on in that song, and it's structured in a way that you never quite know where it's going next. Cracking tune.

Just thinking - maybe Beck is finally in his late-era Badly Drawn Boy stage. BDB went pretty middle of the road, didn't he?

[Shaky]

Just listened to this whilst cooking a Moussaka. Very average, not badly produced just nothing going on here that another thousand other electro pop artists aren't doing.

Beck's album or the Moussaka?

[itsfredtitmus]

hot take: he always sucked

[Dr Syntax Head]

Colors is growing on me. Maybe because I love Beck unconditionally (scientology) I'm forcing myself to like it.

[Viero_Berlotti]

I've been listening to 'Colors' a lot over the past few months an I'd like to officially revise my initial lukewarm opinion of it. After 'Mutations' it is easily my 2nd favourite post-Odelay Beck album.

[Avril Lavigne]

I was thinking about this album earlier for no reason in particular, and realized that while I enjoyed it when it was released, none of the songs have really stuck with me as all-time classics in the same way that Beck's earlier stuff did, and I'm not quite sure why.

[alan nagsworth]

because it fucking sucks

[Avril Lavigne]

because it fucking sucks

I do prefer it to Modern Guilt though.

[thugler]

Gone off it already!

[Straight Faced Customer]

Square One is one of his best tunes, even if it'd be a stretch to say it's a 'Beck' song. I think he realised that at a lot of points on this album, hence the occasional tossed-off lyric about bones and sad inner beings.