Those familiar with Beck know he is a sort of musical chameleon. His albums tend to vary greatly from one another in tone and style, almost as if the needs the change to keep himself interested in his work. His latest album, Modern Guilt, seems to be a melding of his last three works; The more upbeat Guero and The Information, mixed with the ultimate break-up album Sea Change. The message is generally bleak and borderline apocalyptic, though served with a spoonful of sugar provided through the production of Danger Mouse.

The pairing of the two makes sense, as both have exhibited a love of dirty vinyl samples and their works, though definitely pop music, tend to have darker undertones. The album is still very much a Beck album, while Danger Mouse’s presence is regularly evident, as certain drum samples and reverb-rich moments feel reminiscent of his work with Gnarls Barkley.

A break from the style of the past two albums comes not only in overall tone but also in form. Modern Guilt is only 10 tracks long and clocks in at just over thirty minutes, half as long as The Information. The songs are not allowed to hang around any longer than necessary. The result is a desire to return to a track as soon as it ends. This is an album that will get played back to back. It goes by in a blink and leaves you with memories of a vocal here and a drum loop there as you immediately dive back in to seek them out.

Though not as ground breaking as some of his earlier albums, Modern Guilt will satisfy any fan of Beck and a few of the more upbeat tracks may win him some new listeners. As always, here are the stand out tracks and what to do with them.

Track 2: “Gamma Ray”

The dance friendly bass-line is a Danger Mouse staple. Beck lays down the occasional twangy guitar lick to complete what is the best single on the album.

It is the opinion of Pat Driscoll that this song should be danced to like you’re on a mid-60’s episode of American Bandstand. I agree.

Track 4: “Modern Guilt”

This one could have been on Spoon’s last album. The snare drum marches along as Beck sings on this title track. The overall air is somewhat light and careless, which coveys even more than the lyrics the idea of this modern form of guilt.

This is the song to say “to hell with it all.” So you’ve screwed a few things up at the job you don’t really care about. It’s not right to feel good, but you don’t feel too bad. Have a drink and move along.

Track 7: “Replica”

A scattered drum loop sits under Beck’s dreamy vocal creating the perfect juxtaposition of frantic motion and heavenly grace.

This is a song for the headphones. Play this track in the middle of the city and you will be able to float above the chaos. Keep your eye-line high and let the craziness float past you.

Here’s a promotional video with samples from a few different tracks.