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Rating: * * * *
Even one of the most successful, renegade, DIY musicians of modern times needs to have a think about his place in the world every now and then. On his 10th album, Beck Hansen - former Loser, now 38-year-old father of two - is preoccupied with things like the environment ("That's where we'll be when we die in the slipstream"), war ("You got warheads stacked in the kitchen," he sings on Walls), and the big guy in the sky (on the rip-roaring porch-stomper Profanity Prayers and opening track Orphans).
Not that Beck dumps a load of his midlife crap on us, because while he's talking about heavy stuff, Modern Guilt is not hard going at all. It's the easiest on the ear of all of his albums, following the mad masterstroke of Odelay (1996), the psychedelic folk of Mutations (1998), and the melancholic beauty of Sea Change (2002).
And, as a friend pointed out, at just 35 minutes long, Modern Guilt gets a lot of spins and - so far anyway - it's a winner every time.
The lovely, and slightly cheeky sentiment on last track Volcano, when he coos, "I'm going to that volcano, I don't want to fall in though, just want to warm my bones on that fire a while", sums up his thoughtful, yet generally fun-loving, mood.
Musically, with the help of Gnarls Barkley mastermind and producer Dangermouse (Black Keys, Gorillaz), the album is held together beautifully by cool, dead-beat grooves, fun off-kilter beats, and clever yet minimal instrumentation. It's on tracks like the kaleidoscopic Gamma Ray and jaunty title track where Beck's trippy whimsy and Dangermouse's bent and bouncy beats come together perfectly.
Spacey environmental anthem Chemtrails is like the Beach Boys meets shoegazer band Ride; the whiplash-infused Soul Of A Man chugs and graunches along; and then there's Replica, with chaotic beats that crumble into shards, spasms of noise like a theatre bell ringing frantically to get people into the auditorium, and underneath there's soothing brass, piano, strings, and Beck's musings about cutting out a paper replica of yourself.
While Modern Guilt is not a classic like Odelay, it's a short sharp slab of memorable songs delivered by a laid-back musical rogue.
Scott Kara
