BECK - Modern Guilt

Can you approach Beck's latest album without weighing it against his monumental past? You should, but it's hard. So let's give in to the comparison and say that "Modern Guilt" lacks that instantly identifiable hit Beck had accustomed us to, even if it doesn't stray far from his recent output. Still, the record feels like a step backward.

By now the game is always the same: having found the perfect summary of his long career with "The Information", on "Modern Guilt" Beck repeats his masterclass without ever finding a truly surprising spark, keeping his talent for post-everything musical blends well fed, but leaving the real flashes of brilliance from his immense treasure chest in the shadows.

Opener "Orphans" ranges across the usual acoustic excursions, always very well crafted, and continues the seventies atmospheres of the previous album. The brisk "Gamma Ray" frankly doesn't land: pleasant singer-songwriter pop, but nothing more.

His ever-potent blues and funk instincts surface on the title track "Modern Guilt", certainly the most danceable track on the album, with some lovely guitar phrases and a killer piano underpinning it.

"Youthless" would have sounded perfect on "The Information" itself, so much so that it seems lifted straight from it. A perfect counterpart to the closing bonus track "Inside-Out". But one has to wonder whether leaning on the previous record's blueprints is really a merit. All things considered, "Profanity Prayers" also holds up well, thanks to a decent guitar riff in the chorus that props up the structure and a nice acoustic blues interlude.

The rest of the album doesn't stand out, doesn't pull you in, doesn't stick in the memory. Sadly, one might say. So what are we to conclude? That just as "The Information" was a perfect machine, honed by fifteen years of a thoroughly honorable career, "Modern Guilt" is flat, out of focus, muddled. This time, sharpshooter Mr. Beck Hansen missed his mark.

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06/07/2008