Beck - Sea Change

Sea Change is the latest from Beck, who rose to stardom following 1993's smash hit, "Loser." Trumpeted in the press as a post-breakup album, Sea Change has been called Beck's Blood On The Tracks, and it's true that he's never been anywhere near this emotionally naked before.

Sonically, he seems to have laid aside his R&B/hip-hop aspirations in pursuit of a late-'60s/early-'70s folk-rock aesthetic. Several cuts have a lazy, Gram Parsons-like country-rock tinge. While some might lament the departure of the world-spinning wiseguy, Sea Change still seems an inevitable and important step in Beck's artistic maturation.