Track Reviews // Beck - Saw Lightning


15th April 2019
from upcoming album ‘Hyperspace’ (Capitol, TBA 2019)
           
            Beck has voyaged from sound to sound, progressing from lo-fi anti-folk to lurid funk rock and sun-kissed balladry. His 2017 record ‘Colours’ had a notably synthetic bombast as well as the typical fun and freak factor and this latest single from the upcoming album is in a similar vein.

            Of course popping off in the cacophony there are more obnoxious vocalisations; wooping like ad-libs you'd hear from outside the silent disco tent rather than valued parts of the mix but, for the most part, the seasoned arranger in Beck shines through in the variety and layering of the instrumentation.

            Saw Lightning blends Beck’s slack, bluesy musicality with a pristinely curated noughties soundscape, no doubt overseen by co-producer Pharrell whose sprinkling of pep and bounce on the raw material is a reminder of the best of The Neptunes remixes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-e2bptjUOc).

            This first single also represents a return to the fast-flow, cryptic jibberish that has characterised Beck’s most recognised and compelling lyrical efforts. If the aesthetic of the cover art, working album title and a recent appearance on Cage the Elephant’s Night Running (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOYklOGqsWE) are anything to go by Beck fans can expect more experimentation from this maniac lyrical palette.

In Saw Lightning biblical and apocalyptic images are stacked up like a plugged-in gospel sermon and, although the song seems to run out of ideas and direction in the last legs, Beck’s track record suggests we can be confident this is a glimpse of a maverick album and concept to come.


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