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Beck's Sea Change!
I wouldn't usually deem it necessary to actually make a journal entry about a new CD, but I bought Beck's "Sea Change" the other day and I have to say it's one of the best written and arranged pieces of music I've ever had the joy of listening to. Beck writes of an ended relationship with a long time girlfriend, his soulful and heartfelt vocals with the help of his father's string-arranging skills have made Sea Change as beautiful as it is sad.

And let me say this now: It is very sad. It begins with Beck crooning "Put your hands on the wheel/Let the golden age begin" and from there his golden age of sickly sweet seronades come with such a strong sense of utter sorrow you feel like you've broken up with your true love yourself. One would think that someone so young would never be able to sing and write with such a strong emorional tone, but Beck has managed to bring a tear to my eye. "These days I barely get by/I don't event try" echoes his feelings of emptiness while "Baby you're lost/Baby you're lost/Baby you're a lost cause" shows his eventual acceptance of what has come to be.

Had it not been for his father's string arragments however, it wouldn't have been nearly as powerful, and the slow soft theme re-occuring through-out the whole album makes the strings perfectly suit. Not once does the album feel forced, rushed, false, and neither does it once compromise - it remains a strong, sad and emotional atmosphere ringing through your skull from ear to ear.
If I were to have one album to take with me on an after-relationship ride, I'd choose Sea Change without batting en eyelid.
5 stars.