Sundtrak

Date Released: July 8, 2008
Album Genre: Alternative Rock, Alternative, Indie
Album Rating: 8/10
Sounds Like: The Flaming Lips, Gorillaz, The White Stripes

So I've been hearing a lot about Beck lately with this album and wanted to see what the hype was about. I guess you strangely hear a lot about Beck regardless though. I actually wasn't planning to write anything about this album but I couldn't help myself. Seems he's genre-hopped into almost shoegaze rock, which I actually really like. That's the feeling I got from a couple of the tracks and ballads he had in this album. Mind you the last time I listened to Beck it was his album Guero where I was more confused with what genre he was going for because before I thought he was British and from the late 70's from listening to Odelay overplaying The New Pollution. This was before I knew what music really was, so don't hurt me. Overall the album was great chillout music, as for comparing it to the other Beck albums I feel I'm under qualified to give you that.

I was a bit disappointed that Chan was a bit drowned out in the tracks she was featured in. I guess she did some of the background vocals or "humming", but I would've enjoyed hearing her sing a little more in Orphans or Walls. The "oohhh, aaAahhh" just wasn't enough. Gamma Ray was a track that I would've considered Beck without having to listened to his other stuff. Chemtrails and Modern Guilt would have to be two of my favorite tracks in this album. Chemtrails sparked up images of something like The Flaming Lips, kind of a dazy soft rock. Modern Guilt reminds me of 70's rock, another track that I'd like to put Beck more as. Almost like a gradual change, the album starts out kind of bass dominated shoegaze and becomes something more almost like The White Stripes towards the end. I couldn't help but think this with Soul of a Man or Profanity Prayers.