Product Description

'Sea Change' is the fifth album for Geffen records by the eclectic, LA-born artist, Beck Hansen. It follows 1999's Prince-influenced, 'Midnite Vultures' and was produced by Nigel Godrich who worked on his 1998 album, 'Mutations'. The material on this release has been described by critics as a fusion of folk and psychedelia.

Track Listing

1. The Golden Age
2. Paper Tiger
3. Guess I'm Doing Fine
4. Lonesome Tears
5. Lost Cause
6. End Of The Day
7. It's All In Your Mind
8. Round The Bend
9. Already Dead
10. Sunday Sun
11. Little One
12. Side Of The Road

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #833 in Music
• Released on: 2003-08-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 52 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Beck is really bummed. And if song titles such as "Lost Cause", "Lonesome Tears", "Already Dead" and "Nothing I Haven't Seen" don't make the point, his achingly sad lyrics and Sea Change's unerringly downcast sound do. While 1998's Mutations--arguably the singer-songwriter's masterwork and Sea Change's spiritual cousin--was filled with unflinching self-examination, moments of levity were found in songs like "Tropicalia". Not so on Sea Change. Beck's woozy, almost narcoleptic delivery seems to amplify the set's sense of ennui.

But sad isn't necessarily bad, and despite the sombre tone, there's much to praise, not the least of which is the return of producer Nigel Godrich (Mutations, Radiohead) who wraps Beck's gloom in a dreamy, warm blanket of soft strings and floating bleeps and gurgles. Like Daniel Lanois, Godrich is all about vibe, and even Beck's most bare-bones songs benefit from billowy atmospherics. That's especially true of "Paper Tiger" a restless, slowly building epic improbably propelled by a languid orchestra and Beck's expressionless drone. The inky black feel of "Round the Bend"--a glacially slow dirge with muffled vocals--may be the darkest thing Beck's ever written, not counting the very grim "Already Dead".

Whatever's going on in Beck's world, at least we know he's purging. All things considered, this may be better for his soul than ours. --Kim Hughes

Customer Reviews

Black Eyed Dog
A beautiful, delicate, sad album that evokes the haunted, slow, rhythmic sway of some of Nick Drake's best music (I'm thinking Riverman in particular). Laden with swooshing, deep, warm strings and strummed guitar Sea Change is not for the Beck fans who don't like him to be unhappy. If you don't mind what mood he's in as long as he's still recording superb music, you'll love this. An absolute stunner.

How did I overlook this?
OK, I admit it, I was woefully late coming to this offering from Beck. His first few albums were in the collection, and then for some reason I stopped buying them when Midnight Vultures came out, don't know why. It was only with the release of Guero that interest was rekindled , and I started to look backwards again at what I'd missed.
Beck really is an artist to be treasured.
Sea change is an intimate, heartfelt record, and it's touch is light but it runs very deep. After the first listen, I felt it was OK...but as soon as it finished I thought I'd put it on one more time...and again....and again. It's one of those albums which just grows and gets better with repeat listens.
Criticisms? OK you can spot the wholesale lifting on a couple of songs: Paper Tiger is L'histoire de Melody Nelson by Gainsbourgh...and Round the Bend is almost identical in arrangement to River Man by Nick Drake...but you can forgive him ... if you're going to steal, make it from royalty. This is an album born of heartbreak that will heal the soul. Beautiful.

A Pleasant Surprise of a large gearshift
Beck is the Edward Lear of music. The music is nonsense, the lyrics are nonsense but it sounds so refreshing and can only be the work of genius. Odelay is a classic example of this and so is Guero, a complete pic n mix of fantastic records. This however...
If you played Devil's Haircut to a person who'd never heard of beck, then played this, they would have no idea it was the same person. Sea Change is a warming record which gets you settled into a chair and makes you smile and then makes your face fall with melancholy. The Golden Age is a beautiful song that I could listen to every day. Lost Cause is another wistful sleepy acoustic and songs like All In Your Mind turns on the waterworks.
This is a very moving and warm album. I highly reccomend it. A Brilliant Body Of Work