In praise of 'Sea Change' by Beck
- Jan 3, 2022
- 1 min read
I’ve always been a big Beck fan, and not just because we share the same name (although that might have something to do with it – that’s one for the therapists, I guess).
This week [October19 2022] marked the twentieth anniversary since his fabulous SEA CHANGE came out. Sea Change is a phenomenal album: rightly compared to Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks (which is also a corker). It was apparently written in the aftermath of his nine-year relationship with the designer Leigh Limon, who appeared to have done him some damage, poor lamb. But for something to come out of such heartache, it’s achingly beautiful. Not many songs can reach me like Lonesome Tears or It’s All In Your Mind or I Guess I’m Doing Fine.
As he said himself, these are universal songs about heartbreak and loss that could have been written forty years earlier – and yet they still sound so fresh. If you need an album to cry to, to nourish your soul, wrap its arms around you and give you a big cuddle, then this is for you. It’s a big soppy album – devastating and raw – but with such soaring arrangements, it leaves you strangely uplifted.
If you check out his Twitter feed, he has also ‘personally curated’ a Spotify playlist of his most mellow songs so you can dig into his discography. Trust me. There’s a Beck song for every single mood.
Written in October 2022 for my Substack to mark the 20th anniversary of this album
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