Beck Gets Guilty On New Album

Off the cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor, in spades.

By Fred Mills

When we broke the news earlier this year that Danger Mouse would be producing the new Beck album —that is, when BLURT predecessor Harp dropped that bomb in a feature on Danger Mouse — we didn’t know we’d have to wait this long for more info. But info we (and every other friggin’ media outlet on the planet) now have: Modern Guilt will be released July 8th on DGC Records in North America and July 7 on XL Recordings in the UK and Europe.

The ten-song platter follows 2005’s Guero and 2006’s The Information but is not slated to include last year's Grammy-nominated, digital-only single "Timebomb.” The album’s descrbibed as “a tightly assembled group of songs that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off the cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor. Musically, the album's ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse's shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism and orchestration.”

Well shit, everybody loves some off the cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor now and then, right?

Tracklisting:

Orphans
Gamma Ray
Chemtrails
Modern Guilt
Youthless
Walls
Replica
Soul of A Man
Profanity Prayers
Volcano

Beck has also announced a handful of U.S. tour dates for later this year. They are:

8/22/08 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival
8/24/08 - Bend, OR - Les Schwab Amphiteater
8/30/08 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot Festival
9/20/08 - Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Bowl
9/27/08 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival