Musical Thesis: Beck “Hyperspace”

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At the center of every album is a musical thesis. This thesis can be the driving force behind the album, a theme that interweaves songs together, or a feeling you are left with after the very last song plays. With some albums, the thesis is easy to find. On others, it is hidden and requires you to be more than a passive listener. These reviews are not about rating an album. Instead, it is about uncovering a musical thesis.

After the success of “Morning Phase,” Beck could have settled into an award-winning sound. Instead, music’s great chameleon changed colors and went in a different direction. Where “Morning Phase” felt folk-oriented, grounded, and melodic, this album is pop-oriented, bubbly, and of the moment. Underneath the shift in sound appears to be an album concerned with time and the space we occupy between the two. In my experience of trying to discover the “why” behind albums, I see lots of aging artists flirt with this theme. There must be something about the finite nature of time that forces us to find ways in which we can come to terms with our mortality. For many, this search can be somber and reflective. For Beck, it is cheery and focused.

Be good to each other,

Nathan