Beck’s Modern Guilt is his first full album attempt to express his dark, melancholic side. Because of this, the album is remarkably consistent. Almost all of the tracks feature his electronically warped, near-indiscernible voice whose fans would be familiar with from earlier songs such as Broken Drum or Derelict. These same tracks feature the jazz-like interlacing of drumbeats by Modern Guilt’s co-producer, Danger Mouse, and an overall tone of sadness and despair (this makes sense because Beck began writing the album shortly after a divorce and almost twenty years of a grinding tour schedule). Notable standouts of Modern Guilt include Gamma Ray (a simple but catchy surfer rock tale of nuclear annihilation) and Volcano (a two minute autobiography of Beck’s quest to find balance between his morbid feelings and crowd pleasing compulsions).
Now, all this consistency might read like a compliment, but as any Beck fan will tell you, inconsistency is his strong suit. On Odelay!, you will find, back-to-back, the punk rock sounds of Minus next to rockabilly classic Sissyneck next to the electronica of Readymade next to the rap-chant of High 5 (Rock the Catskills). Which brings me to one last thing. With just ten tracks and at a few minutes older than half an hour, this album is short. It’s just a little bit more than half as long as Beck’s second most recent album, The Information. But that isn't really a problem. It’s just another facet of the diamond in the rough that is Beck.
