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Modern Guilt | 
 enlarge | Artist: Beck
Label: Interscope Records
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $5.59
You Save: $8.39 (60%)
New (52) Used (18) from $5.59
Rating:  96 reviews
Sales Rank: 257
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 602517754416
EAN: 0602517754416
ASIN: B0019GAOI2
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Orphans | | • | Gamma Ray | | • | Chemtrails | | • | Modern Guilt | | • | Youthless | | • | Walls | | • | Replica | | • | Soul of A Man | | • | Profanity Prayers | | • | Volcano |
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| Editorial Reviews:
People en Español
In the last few years, Beck has freely sailed the seas of electronic and alternative music, but he is now back on land with Modern Guilt, an album that gravitates mostly toward electronic music and that, unfortunately, only has a couple of songs that really stand out ("Modern Guilt," "Orphans"). The problem has nothing to do with the fact that this CD is more electronic than acoustic. The sound is poor, and it sounds as if Beck were actually singing out of a barrel. Also, the beat doesn't change from one song to the next, and if you don't listen carefully to each song, you could not tell when tracks change. Despite Beck being one of the most creative and versatile musicians in recent years, the songs of this album have no depth. Let's just hope that Beck surprises with his next. --Ernesto Sanchez (People en Espanol  ) En los ultimos anos, Beck ha navegado libremente por las aguas de las musica electronica y la alternativa, ahora esta regreso al mundo de la musica con Modern Guilt, un disco que se inclina mas hacia la musica electronica y que desgraciadamente solo tiene un par de canciones que se destacan como "Modern Guilt" y "Orphans." Y el problema no tiene nada que ver con el hecho de que sea un disco mas electronico que acustico, el sonido del disco es muy pobre, pareciera que Beck esta cantando dentro de una cubeta, y el beat no parece cambiar de una cancion a la otra. Si no se pone extrema atencion a cada cancion no se dara cuenta del momento en que cambian los tracks. Si bien Beck es uno de los musicos mas creativos y versatiles de los ultimos anos hay que decir que este es un disco en el que los temas carecen de profundidad. Esperemos que Beck realmente nos sorprenda con su siguiente produccion. --Ernesto Sanchez (People en Espanol )
Amazon.com
Beck's new album Modern Guilt, produced with Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, will be released July 8, 2008.
The new album contains 10 new songs, and with the exception of last year's Grammy-nominated, digital-only single "Timebomb", Modern Guilt is the first new material Beck has written since the prolific stretch that produced 2005's platinum Guero and 2006's universally acclaimed The Information.
Modern Guilt is 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.
Beck is about to embark on a tour of the UK and Europe, followed by a number of US headline and festival appearances, culminating in Beck's biggest hometown headline show to date, September 20, 2008 at the Hollywood Bowl. Beck Photos
Album Description
Modern Guilt is the tenth studio album by musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Beck. Modern Guilt features two contributions by Cat Power and co-produced by Danger Mouse. The hit track 'Chemtrails' is a genre-bending tour de force that showcases Beck and producer Danger Mouse's shared affection for late '60s Psych-Pop. The album releases on July 8, 2008, his 38th birthday.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 A Quirky and Addictive Slap in The Soul July 9, 2008
Da BrandoChipper
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
2008 has been a prolific year for releases from major artists (REM, Counting Crows, The Black Crowes, Colplay, Alanis Morrisette, Lil Wayne, etc etc). Most of these releases have been worthy of praise, but I have found a few flaws in all of them. Call me an idiot, but I cant find any flaws in Beck's new release, Modern Guilt, although I am sure some reviewers are itching to point some flaws out to me.
As Beck gets closer to 40, his songwriting has matured. He seems to use fewer samples than he used to. He still wears his influences on his sleeve, but his personality is all over the music. His collaboration with Danger Mouse worked well. The "beats" are paced well enough to make the entire album easy to enjoy in one listen, but you will want to listen again as soon as you're done.
Becks lyrics have always been quirky and obtuse, and this album is no exception. But this time the imagery seems thicker and more foreboding. The bodies drowning in the moody and ethereal "Chemtrails" are certainly morose and some may think Beck a bit paranoid, but he may be justified. The crunchy, guitar driven "Profanity Prayers" could be the highlight of the album and is my personal favorite. "Who's gonna answer profanity prayers" is quite a slap in the face of modern man. Our calls to a higher power have become nothing more than four letter words. Beck addresses a higher power at several points and he certainly makes more sense than the hair sprayed con men on TV.
Beck has proven here that middle age doesnt dull creativity. The songs Ive mentioned above along with the bass heavy "Orphans", "Gamma Ray" and "Youthless" easily rank along with some his best songs. (I know this sounds weird...but I can picture Austin Powers doing his "shag dance" to "Gamma Ray"). Some of the songs are experiments, such as the slightly eccentric "Replica", but the experiments work. You may need to listen more than once, but none of the songs are filler. Every song has something to offer and seems as if it will offer even more the next time you listen.
If Beck isnt nominated for at least Alternative Album of the Year, the academy of music and recorded arts is a bunch of idiots.
Beck evolves on newest album to create 'Modern' masterpiece August 15, 2008
Dustin Perry (El Paso, Texas)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Musical chameleon Beck released his latest album, "Modern Guilt," on his 38th birthday and the songs found therein display an artist far removed from the 23-year-old Los Angeles slacker who was telling us he was 'un perdedor' on "Mellow Gold," his 1994 breakthrough release. This disc finds Mr. Hansen truly exploring the heavy themes of death and personal reflection for the first time, and the results are nothing short of stellar. Middle age, it seems, has its benefits.
Beck tried this feat, the "serious record," two years ago on 2006's "The Information," but the message was pretty much lost to critics and fans, who thought the filtered-through-a-ColecoVision beats and lyrics about cellular phones were more post-apocalyptic and self-referential than anything else. He gets straight to the point this time around, with 10 concise tracks, a 34-minute runtime and not an ounce of leftover ideas to clutter the proceedings.
To the delight of fans the world over, Beck enlisted Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), the reigning critical darling of the music-production world, to man the boards on "Modern Guilt." They make an excellent team, what with their shared taste for `60s psychedelic rock, twitchy percussion and looped string samples -- not to mention their impeccable ear for catchy riffs. The surf-rock bass line that serves as the backbone for "Gamma Ray" makes it the closest approximation to a pop song Beck has written in years.
Perhaps tired of hearing that his last two records were trying too hard to be "Odelay 2.0," Beck has dialed back his use of left-field audio samples and bits of obscure and forgotten songs from decades past, choosing instead to interpret those influences and recreate them as fairly straightforward rock tunes. People seem to forget that, if you ignore the space-cowboy production flourishes that saturate every last inch of Beck's late-`90s output, he was -- and still is -- one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of the last 25 years.
Of course, it wouldn't be a true Beck album if he didn't make room in his lyrics for a full notebook's worth of wacky one-liners and vaguely interpretable philosophical musings. The churning "Soul of a Man" finds our hero spitting out non sequiturs as if he made them up a few seconds before walking into the recording booth. "Beat my bones against the wall/Put a bank note on your bond/Gris-gris and a goldenrod/Deep down in a hollow log," goes one verse, the words apparently chosen for no reason other than to meet the song's syllabic needs.
"Chemtrails," the slow and dreamy lead single, addresses the urban legend that the vapor trails from commercial airliners contain chemicals that, once they fall to Earth and are inhaled by an unaware populace, allow the government to control us. (Sample lyric: "You and me hit by a test of white evil/Watching the jet planes go by") Now, that may just be the Scientology talking, but the fact remains that "Chemtrails" is one of the most beautifully composed Beck ballads in recent memory.
Prior to the release of "Modern Guilt," there was a lot of excited chatter over the news that soul singer Cat Power (Chan Marshall) would be making a cameo appearance on two of the album's tracks, "Orphans" and "Walls," but her contributions are so incidental (and not to mention barely audible) that I think mentioning them four-fifths of the way through my review will suffice.
The most notable aspect of "Modern Guilt," in my opinion, is that it is the first Beck album since 1999's "Midnite Vultures" to not have a single clunker on it. Perhaps they were crafted that way, to get in and out in less than four minutes each and leave you wanting more. And there's no guilt in that, modern or otherwise.
Confident, unpretentious, engaging August 25, 2008
Eric Torbenson (Dallas, TX)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I concur with previous reviewers that the first four or five songs are just some of the craftiest songwriting out there, though my favorite tune is edging toward "Profanity Prayers". I bought on the thought that others described it "like The Information" but I don't think it really is. Just like any Beck album, very hard to categorize, compare with/to, which is a true virtue of an artist who endures. This just has confidence througout - there's not a lot of "look at me" riffs or beeps or fizzles or what have you here (like "In Rainbows", for example - the band doesn't feel a need to overwhelm with crazy sound, but simply make pure music and truly reflect who they are), but the beats are catchy, the lyrics deliver the usual mind-twisting precision and there's an undercurrent of optimism here, perhaps throwing a few shovel-fuls of dirt on the Sea Change downer... Yeah, it could be 3 tracks longer, but The Information had about 3 too many tracks. I appreciate the self-editing. A great soundtrack for just about anything... ET
so good I can't stop listening to it July 13, 2008
Ashley B. Machnick
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Beck has once again launched us into a new age of music. His new album is ethereal, uplifting, contemplative, witty and crafted with the exquisiteness only an artist of Beck's caliber could create. From the start with Orphans we are taken into a psyche-rock album with powerful song writing and beautiful orchestration layered with the truly amazing concoctions of producer Danger Mouse. He weaves beats and textures with Beck's sweet voice and melodic guitars to create a tapestry that is timeless. In my opinion, this album definitely represents the future of music. It takes us on such a ride, through an understanding of ourselves and our 'Guilt' and ultimately to the final track Volcano, with is melodious angelic voices and sweet violin. Here we are provided with a reconciliation to the album and perhaps even to our own state of modern guilt. My only desire when the album stops is to start it over. I find my ears cannot get enough of drinking in the sweet dew of truly amazing music, which is so rare in today's wasteland of music. Modern Guilt stands as an oasis where music sounds like it it was meant to be... so good you can't stop listening to it.
keep em coming July 16, 2008
tracy houston (truckee, ca)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
loved the last album the information. this one even more. its a little short but accomplishes some of the same trippiness that theinformation had (specially the last few tracks) with a more raw sound. Beck is doing more than just staying current. He's pushing boundaries constantly, while making really enjoyable music that doesn't sound experimental.
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