Modern Guilt... First Impressions...
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CMOR
Posted on: 07/13/08
Modern Guilt... First Impressions...
Modern Guilt has stopped me cold... It keeps us old, never doing what we're told... It's a fold in the cosmic dollar bill, as we get rolled toward tomorrow... And sorrow is but a rental with which we bitch and borrow... Modern Guilt isn't all that new... It's the guilty ones who need a novelty...
Hell of a way to start a review, that's for sure... Poetry can be a defense mechanism for me, or a way to attempt a translation of the enigmatic and profound unfound... It's often when I throw randomness at a question mark, the words arrange themselves into the wisest potential for a phrase... Call it creativity or call it blindfold marksmanship... Some things are easily explained... But when life becomes the great mystery that it can be, I retreat behind riddles to understand... Beck's new album, 'Modern Guilt' has me resorting to poems yet again...
I picked it up at my local indie record store, on the day it came out... Tuesday, July 8th, also happens to be Beck's birthday... It was a day full of promise, and I had cleared all of my day's agenda to absorb the album completely into my consciousness... I was wide open, as Beck has never done me wrong... I imported it into eyetoons and sat down with my headpones and the lyrics...
I have been reeling ever since... Not in a bad way, but a very disassociated way... Like fully embracing the incredibly beautiful songs would be right and wrong all mixed up... There is an air of invitation with every tune, which allows a listener to cozy up comfortably to the message... The melodies remind me of old Turtles or Beatles or Nick Drake resurrected on a sacred turntable... The rhythms are stellar, the production is nearly the best yet... But something... something...
The words take me from the lap of musical luxury into a foggy basement of 'Should I be better or I should be me?' It never really implies that I am the guilty one, in fact its likely Beck playing scapegoat for all of us citizens... Still I find it difficult to escape the Modern Guilt trip placed upon me by myself...
Please don't get me wrong in all this... I absolutely love this album! I know it will one day be among my favorites, so resting in this unrest is an imortant part of the process... Believe me, I'd prefer to have it as awesome background music for driving or grilling meat, but it would be a shame to miss such an honest recording...
I see I am no closer to actually reviewing this collection than when I began... I think I will try a track-by-track approach for the virtue of familiarity...
Orphans is by far the most haunting and daunting on the entire album... The melody invites me in as beck marks his territory with stark clarity... I can enjoy it, but I catch myself feeling like the luckiest orphan in the world... Very catchy...
Gamma Ray is a slam bam single I am sure... It reminds me of a 70's cross between the clash and pink floyd, with a bit of nick drake's resurrected essence spun from a turntable... It is towards the end of this song that I know I am hooked on the album and get the urge to either flee... It is either this option or acclimatizing myself to Beck's wavelength...
Chemtrails is tragically beautiful... Beck is honestly communicating, accompanied by ethereal organs and moans in the background... To express the irony of pollution causing such serenity, and to do it so well... This is why I love Beck... As the jam rolls toward the end of the song, I reflect that I am in unknown space... Where is he taking this starship?
Modern Guilt is the title track... It begins with a stalker feel, but with the realness and freedom that introspection can afford... "I'm a pawn piece in a human shield..." is a line from the song that jumps out... Like we are all part of this earth, for good or ill... What does it mean to be human? Does that imply we are guilty for the errors our race makes? If we take credit for the victories, we must certainly ponder the flaws as well... Musically, it's like Beck just finished a tour with the Turtles... It holds up alongside much of the 60's pop chart offerings as well...
Youthless is classic Beck... The 'bomp, bomp, bomp...' from Information comes back again for a more polished flavor... This is a song that is carried by its vocal melody... I could wax many hours on what the lyrics mean... Safe to say can best be interpreted by you... But sandwiched in between two heavy hitters like MG and Walls, it becomes clear that a point is being driven home...
Walls is like a trip hop fantasy... Filled with glassy pads and blown-speaker drum beats, it is difficult to discern where Cat Powers' voice ends and the synthesiser begins... I challenge anyone to sit with this song for an extended period of time... But be prepared to come out of it ready to grow... An amazing tune, especially within the context of the album...
Replica is very much a refined '1000 B.P.M.' from the information... It's Beck getting his drum & bass flowing... I have heard mixed feelings on this song, but I wouldn't get too hard on it... Replica stands alone as an amalgam of 60's psychadelic pop crossbred with discotechno... It balances out the hard edges to come, as we discover in the next track...
Soul Of A Man grabbed me instantly... It sounds like soundgarden meets the beach boys! Or stone temple pilots meets abba... The bent up guitar riffs sizzle from the headset, and his electric vocals make me sit up with attention... Plus the subject matter asks what makes the soul of a man... My favorite subject... He ends with a rare fade out as well... Hmmm...
Profanity Prayers is yet another poignant powerpunch... The guitars are way too much, if one looks for the Air vibe of years past... But to use the word punk would take away from it... It reminds me of the who's energy, at times... As this whole album, the message is in your face as well as all over Beck's... "Who's gonna answer?" is the way to ask this question, for he's not saying your prayers are profane... Just pointing out that if they were they might be worthless...
Volcano is one of my favorites... It's Beck treating us to a ballad after such turbulent troubadouring... Uber honest once again... One line says,"I been riding on this train so long, I don't know if you or me who's driving us into the ground..." Wow! The courage to point out it's a screwed up view, the willingness to suggest that it might be you, and the sensitivity to admit that it could be you-know-who... The irony at the end sweetens as he mentions the girl in the volcano, sacrificing herself for the world... He says he wants to go to the edge, but just to warm his bones... True Beck wit and wisdom, almost appearing to be the one roasting a marshmallow by the embers of a rising phoenix...
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