Beck – Morning Phase: #788 of best 1,000 albums ever!

Why is Beck’s Morning Phase on my best 1,000 albums ever list?

What eludes easy definition becomes a core strength.

What does Beck’s Morning Phase mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?

I’ll tell you right up front that I’m enormous Beck fan. But when I first checked out Morning Phase, I found it to be his most inaccessible album… at least at first*.

* Your mileage will vary, of course, in terms of what is “accessible” or “inaccessible” for a piece of music. With Beck, Stereopathetic Soul Manure or even One Foot in the Grave might be relatively inaccessible for many. I’d strongly advise to give both a chance because the audio rewards are great.

Released in 2002, Sea Change – Beck’s first slower, quieter, sadder singer-songwriter style album and something of a bookend album to Morning Phase – makes more sense right up front. “Oh, this is the breakup album,” you recognize right away, and get into a lovely bummer groove when “The Golden Age” or “Paper Tiger” kicks off.

Morning Phase eludes that easy definition. But whereas at first I found that a little bit frustrating, I realized that it actually becomes the album’s core strength.

“Heart Is A Drum” a quiet, soft, contemplative song, was my way “in” to the album*. What’s striking too, taking a step back, is that there’s zero tongue in cheek ironic put on with this version of Beck, no playful smashing together of genres, no wildly wicked lyrical wordplay.

* I received a really kind note from my old friend Dan recently, a brilliant musician and percussionist in his own right, who noted that this best 1,000 albums ever project has reawakened his interest in listening to albums as a whole once again.

The more I listen to “Blackbird Chain,” I think about Beck’s Mutations album. A slightly sped up version of “Blackbird Chain,” perhaps with a few more musical flourishes, might have fit in rather well on that (great) 1998 album. And while “Blackbird Chain” obviously spent quite a bit of time getting produced in the studio, getting those vocal overlays and strings layered precisely, there’s a lean toward simplicity in this song and this album which is noticeable.

There’s something a little Simon & Garfunkel-y about “Turn Away,” a gorgeous and tightly written folk song that’s built off a base level of singer songwriter simplicity and beautiful guitar strumming and background vocals.