Beck and Pharrell Williams headed into the studio following the completion of Beck\u2019s tour to promote the Colors<\/i> album that Williams had supported. The original idea was to have Beck contribute to a new N.E.R.D project. However, in a very short period of time, the pair ended up with a full length album of new material Hyperspace<\/i>, Beck\u2019s fourteenth album of original material \u2013 co-produced by Williams and recorded by the pair with a smattering of contributions from a handful of musicians.<\/p>\n
This album, unlike some other recent offerings in Beck\u2019s catalogue, is somewhat predictable. But that doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t enjoyable for what it is. The overall vibe is a throwback to the synth-pop days of the early \u201880s electronic renaissance following the death of disco. Study the album cover and you can probably guess what it will sound like. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s all synth-laden tracks, percussion courtesy of drum machines, and finger snaps. There are some stellar layered vocals as always, and as with anything Beck ever does, the entire record \u2013 although hastily recorded \u2013 has the sound of a man 100% committed to his craft.<\/p>\n
The most inspired moments on Hyperspace<\/i> come when everything is stripped down to the bare bones as on \u201cSee Through,\u201d a beautiful introspective love song. \u201cStar\u201d is the most vintage Beck cut on the record; it wouldn\u2019t sound out of place on Midnite Vultures<\/i>. \u201cDie Waiting\u201d (featuring Skye Ferreira) kind of falls flat. At first, it sounds at first like it\u2019s building towards something good, but it never does. The title track, which features Terrell Hines, fares a little better, save for the vocals, which are way overproduced for my liking.<\/p>\n
\u201cUneventful Days,\u201d \u201cSaw Lightening,\u201d and \u201cChemical\u201d are all well crafted and pleasing to hear. Better still is the album\u2019s closer \u201cEverlasting Nothing,\u201d easily the strongest cut here. It features an inspired vocal performance and some wonderful soulful backing vocals, not to mention the humble acoustic guitar, which \u00a0can be heard here as well as on the blissful sounding \u201cDark Places.\u201d<\/p>\n
I enjoyed Morning Phase<\/i> and Colours<\/i> upon first hearing those two, and it seems that Hyperspace<\/i> is a sleeper that will grow with further listens. But for now, it\u2019s a better-than-average Beck album that is perfect for when you\u2019re in the mood for a little ambient electronica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":34016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5717],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45845","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-beck","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45845"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}