New Song(s) Alert: Beck Releases Two Songs, Announces New LP ‘Ride Lonesome’
On the heels of releasing a wonderful “odds and sods” compilation album of stray tracks this last February Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime, B&V perpetual fav Beck has announced he’s releasing his first album in seven years entitled Ride Lonesome. He has already released two songs for the album, expected in September.
I can’t believe it’s been seven years since we last got an album of new material from Beck. I will admit 2019’s Hyperspace actually kind of left me cold. And if I’m being totally honest 2017’s Colors also found me a bit disappointed, much to the chagrin of an ex girlfriend who apparently loved that record and wrote to tell me so.
While I didn’t particularly like either of those albums there were still some great tracks like “Saw Lightning” and “Wow.” The great ones might miss once in a while but there are always gems to be found on those misses. That’s why when you like an artist you should still give even the lesser albums in their catalog a spin, but I digress.
While it’s been seven years since his last album, Beck hasn’t been idle. He’s toured quite a bit. And he’s released a couple of gorgeous acoustic singles, “Thinking About You” and the Neil Young cover “Old Man.” He also collaborated with the Black Keys on their album Ohio Player.
As we’ve learned over the years since we first discovered Beck on his first big hit, “Loser,” Beck actually has two speeds. We have the rhyme-spitting, funky, high BPM (beats per minute) groove-meister of Odelay fame. I was always a huge fan of this type of Beck’s music. I loved Guero and Modern Guilt.
However, Beck has always had an acoustic, serious-troubadour side as well. I briefly owned Mutations which was more in this acoustic vein. But it wasn’t until 2002’s Sea Change that I became a huge fan of Beck’s acoustic stuff. I still remember the goosebumps I felt when I heard the first line of “Golden Age,” and the words “Put your hands on the wheel, let the golden age begin…” Yeah, I’d been there and felt that acutely watching someone metaphorically drive away…
He followed that up in 2014 with Morning Phase which might have been even more brilliant. It would appear from these two new songs – “Ride Lonesome” and “In The Night” that the new album will be in the same style as Sea Change and Morning Phase, and that’s a very good thing.
“Ride Lonesome” actually came out a few weeks ago but I thought it was another one-off single like the aforementioned “Thinking About You.” In a fit of petulance, despite really like the song, I didn’t even write about it, thinking to myself, I’ll write about Beck when he drops an album. I really need to get out more.
“Ride Lonesome” is another acoustic-strummer classic from Beck. It ranks amongst his finest acoustic work. It’s a track that is very easy to love. “You got to ride lonesome, you got to try to find the road, you go to cry a river and follow it all the way home, alone.” Damn!
The second new track, which actually was released to announce the new album, is “In The Night.” It’s awash in strings with a haunting vocal. The lyrics set the tone, “Darkness came on by, with stories of the sky, to bury all the lies.” It’s another track that just grabs my attention.
I can’t wait to hear this new album. I think you can almost think of Sea Change, Morning Phase and Ride Lonesome as a trilogy of sorts. They share the same sound template and similar heavy heartbreak vibes. This is just gorgeous music.
Put these new tracks on after the sun goes down, pour a tumbler of the good stuff and dig it, baby!
Cheers!