IN REVIEW: Beck - "Colors"

Once hailed as a vanguard of alternative music, Beck's penchant for going against the grain and offering a counter to the conventional sounds of the times has slowly regressed in recent years. As his creative output has gone from a torrent to a trickle, he's gone from the bold outsider to the willing conformer.

If that's perceived as too harsh a criticism on Beck, enter Colors; the promised more upbeat album that he was already working on in a preliminary fashion when Morning Phase came out three and a half years ago has taken a long time to surface, finally hitting shelves more than two years after singles started to trickle out (Dreams is given a new and more sanitary mix here which replaces "stop fucking with my dreams" with "stop dragging down my dreams", but is otherwise pretty much the same song). While there's no denying that this is a much brighter and upbeat record than Morning Phase, it's also perhaps much more derivative than any Beck release which came before it; rather than offering the skewed take on pop that Beck is commonly known for, Colors finds Beck more or less joining in with the crowd. This does provide some catchy material, but throughout there's generally no trace of the pioneering artist that defied the status quo during his peak.

That's not to say Colors is without merit and, as an echo of modern indie and pop, it's more or less effective in its intent. As old as they are at this point, Dreams and Wow aren't as offensively awful as perhaps their reception among fans would have you believe. Recent singles Colors and Up All Night, as sugary as they are, have undeniable charms, as do album cuts with deep hooks like Seventh Heaven and I'm So Free. Dear Life, meanwhile, might be the most completely satisfying song in the album, its jaunty piano line complimented by a thick beat and the record's most singable chorus.

Perhaps it's on me that I get let down by hearing Beck fall in line while other artists take up the mantle of ingenuity that he seems to have abandoned. Perhaps I'm asking too much of an artist that struck contrarian paydirt in the '90s to stay in that same contrarian head space a couple of decades down the line. Perhaps the appropriation of modern trends by an accomplished and experienced songwriter is as close to innovation for artist and format alike as that artist is capable of thirteen albums into a long and storied career. Whatever the case, Colors has the songs but lacks much of the substance, and finds the artist that used to bend the mainstream to his ideals now more than willing to bend his ideals.

October 13, 2017 • Fonograf/Capitol
Highlights I'm So Free • Dear Life • Up All Night