It feels like I’ve been anticipating this album for all of forever. I have a massive crush on this man, and not just because he’s pretty. It’s because he never disappoints, even after nine studio albums spanning fourteen years, Beck’s tenth album, Modern Guilt, is superb, and while he has described it as, “the most intensive work I’ve ever done on anything,” the end result appears characteristically effortless. From its very opening, Modern Guilt whisks you away to the Universe of Beck, where time stands still long enough to allow you to remember how it felt when you first heard Mellow Gold and Odelay! before flicking you back to the present where Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) lays a deft hand to the keyboard bass which spreads dotingly beneath the multi-instrumental Hansen’s hovering vocals and sex-fuelled guitar work. It was near impossible to choose a favourite track to post.

Modern Guilt is being released next Tuesday which, charmingly enough, happens to be Hansen’s birthday. Maybe that’s why they rushed the release… (but probably not).

Beck – Modern Guilt

- bec