Beck / Morning Phases


You might as well add it to Audiogon Recordings To Die For list. This recording has it in spades,wall to wall sound,layers of imaging and the music sounds like Sea Change. a handfull songs sound like Pink Floyd but without Gilmour's guitar, two of them Morning and Turn Away,the vocal mix has me reaching for my Moody Blues albums.Other songs are very intimate classic Beck. This so far is the masterpiece of 2014. Oh yeah this is from the CD,I'm waiting on my vinyl copy.
qdrone
And vinyl heads will be pleased to hear that this album was pressed at Pallas in Germany.
Is the album more upbeat than Sea Change? If it is, I'll have to check it out.
If you mean music wise no,it actually sounds lie Sea Change part ll. If your talking about subject matter yes,the songs are more introspective and not as depressing as Sea Change.
The vinyl doesn't disappoint -even better than Sea Change on MoFi in my opinion -quite a bit more relaxed. Awesome album.
Upbeat? No. But ...
I bought the album (on CD) on Tuesday, the day of its release. Played it twice. Woke up on Wednesday -- morning phase, get it -- with one of the songs -- "Heart is a Drum" in my head. And I was happy to have it there.
I've played it twice since, and it is sounding better each time. It's got instrumentation like "Sea Change," but it ain't so dour. At all.
Some of the tunes are actually quite pretty, can make you smile.
Highly recommended.
-- Howard
Sea Change was a very good album musically but I found the lyrics depressing as hell but introspective I can handle. I owned the gold version of Sea Change which sounded fantastic.
very very similar in feel and sound to sea change, which i've always had mixed feelings about. the new album's pretty, and good sounding, and he's got a nice feel for melody, but with beck i always hear more intellect/craft than genuine musicality/inspiration. plus he's never been much of a singer, although again he's smart enough to minimize his limitations. i feel the same way about bowie and madonna.
I have seen him live four times and have every one of his CDs. I think the new one ought to be called The Soporific. Very tedious and nary a hook. Incredibly disappointed. To my mind, he's getting less and less inventive. It seems like he mailed this one in.
His vocal work on Phase is quite strong... the first track is a carpon copy of *Golden Age ...some nice studio trickery/atmosperics...too early to tell if this has the staying power of Sea Change...that was a unique at times magical LP.Production wise it is stellar.
Qdrone, Thanks or the heads up. Listening to the full album on youtube. Going to put this on my list to buy on vinyl
Jet
I find it interesting that so many people, including friends and members of my family consider Sea Change depressing. I see the sadness in many of the songs, but I love it. I have noticed over many years that I am attracted to music that others consider dark.
I will have to get the new one. I do hope that I like it more than Lse does.
been listening to this more, and i'm revising my initial impressions upwards--the songs are there, and as others have commented it's sonically excellent. i still struggle with his voice--he uses the same unnatural-sounding baritone on each track and i keep wondering how great the record would be with a really good nuanced singer.
Qdrone, Thanks or the heads up. Listening to the full album on youtube. Going to put this on my list to buy on vinyl
Jet
HD Tracks is offering it in 96/24 which is on my short list to buy. This will be my first Beck cd. I steered away from Sea Changes because I thought it sounded to depressing.

Also, Computer Audiophile has a thread were the editor bought all the current versions of this and reviewed them and listed them in order of sound quality. The HD tracks download was #2 and I forget what #1 was...
Album arrived a few days ago. Listened to the first three tracks this morning and had to turn it off. It sounds so good that only with a nice drink and proper volume should this be enjoyed. Sounds incredible.
I bought the HD tracks version, I can't stop listening to it. Not a weak track on it. It is a lot like Sea Change so if you didn't like that CD you probably won't care for this.
Very nice recording. Also like the new Elbow record. Great band from Manchester, UK.