Beck's new album Colors is a summer dropkick to the cranium

Beck's new album is a summer stunner.

It starts with a jaunty bassline, morphs to a skittery skate-rap jam, erupts into a Sum 4-style pop-punk chorus, then concludes with a fuzzed-out finale that has Beck yelping, "I'm so free now," like he's floating away on a cloud.

You wouldn't be wrong in thinking there were a fair few "woo hoos" - sung like Blur's Song 2 - thrown into the mix as well.

For the record, Beck is now 47 years old and here, on his 13th album, it's clear he's having a blast. That song, I'm So Free, lands just three songs in and, like much of Colors, it arrives like a summer dropkick to the face.

If you thought Morning Phase, Beck Hansen's Grammy-winning, Kanye West-angering album from 2014, was a little maudlin, this is his Greg Kurstin-produced reply.

Colors is a sun-kissed rainbow pop joy and the perfect soundtrack to the perfect summer.

Want proof? The title track is a certified hands-in-the-air festival electro-banger, Dear Life is a Beatles-esque piano-led stunner, Dreams settles in like a nap in the sun, and Up All Night is a dancefloor filler that sounds like Beck's been listening to a lot of Jamiroquai lately.

Then there's Wow. If you'd told me we'd still be listening to Beck rapping, "Giddy up," over trap beats, pan pipes and animal noises this deep into 2017, I would have laughed you out of the room.

But the fact that Wow lives up to its name feels like icing sugar dusted on top of a sun-kissed rainbow cake.

Life won't be complete until we've heard Colors mapped out live to see Beck's full spectrum. Shows, please.

Beck - Colors

Label: Capitol
Verdict: A joyful rainbow collage ripe for summer