Culture 4 min read By Trevor Kendall
Beck Returns With 'Ride Lonesome,' a Heartbreak Album Seven Years in the Making
Beck's new album 'Ride Lonesome' arrives seven years after 'Hyperspace,' reuniting his 'Sea Change' and 'Morning Phase' collaborators for what he calls a direct and emotional heartbreak record.
Beck has released his first album in seven years, 'Ride Lonesome,' a record he describes as a «slow motion, twilight, Mojave, acoustic, a trance of sound and emotion.» The album marks a return to the emotionally direct, acoustic territory of his acclaimed works 'Sea Change' and the Grammy-winning 'Morning Phase,' rather than the genre-smashing alt-rock of 'Mellow Gold,' 'Odelay,' or 'Midnite Vultures.'
In an interview, Beck explained that the album was initially scheduled for release in 2023 but was shelved for two years. «I wasn't sure about the songs, I didn't think they were strong enough, and I just wasn't in the mood for what the record would require to really fully live it and bring it to life,» he said. The singer, songwriter, and composer attributed the delay partly to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, as well as his extensive world tours, including an acclaimed orchestral theatre run last year.
The album was made with his original touring band from the '90s, the same musicians who recorded 'Sea Change' and 'Morning Phase,' and was mixed by Nigel Godrich, who produced the former. Beck described the group as his version of «The Wrecking Crew.» «There's a musical chemistry that's something gratifying for us,» he said. «It's a relationship over many decades that just gets deeper and has more shapes, colour and nuance through time.»
Beck characterized 'Ride Lonesome' as a «heartbreak record,» with lyrics that grapple with loss and emotional reckoning. «It's about reckoning with loss, letting things go, navigating these emotionally impossible places and trying to get through those moments,» he explained. «There's romantic loss, there's losing a loved one – a good friend – and just changing eras of your life.»
The singer said the emotional directness of the album required a courage he lacked earlier in his career. «It took a long time to get that kind of courage to be this direct and emotional,» he said. He recalled coming up in a musical climate that was «pretty inhospitable» to introspective, acoustic music, where performing such songs could invite booing and heckling. He noted that friends like Elliott Smith and Lou Barlow were writing quiet, introspective music at a time when it wasn't fashionable, and he felt nervous for them.
Beck also addressed his genre-hopping career, explaining that early on he didn't differentiate between the folky singer-songwriter records he started with and the alt-rock that followed his breakout hit «Loser.» «The ethos at the time was that the audience would just have to accept everything, warts and all,» he said. «It's made for a bit of confusion, but there's definitely a different ethos for this kind of record rather than one like 'Midnite Vultures,' which is almost a different project.»
On the subject of artificial intelligence in music, Beck said human connection will always win out over AI. He did not elaborate further in the interview excerpt.
'Ride Lonesome' is out now. The album follows 'Hyperspace,' released in 2019, and represents a full-circle moment for Beck, reuniting the collaborators who helped shape two of his most emotionally resonant works.
