Released: September 2002
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If the current buzz surrounding Beck's eighth album is to
be believed (and it should), the pioneering artist has just created his
greatest recording to date. From the first doleful guitar twang of "The
Golden Age," you know you're not in Beck's Kansas anymore. A decided
departure for the sonically experimental and irreverent artist, Sea Change
finds Beck embarking on a musical journey firmly rooted in a willingness
to reveal the soul. Scuttlebutt has it that these dozen songs came about
on the heels of a failed longtime love. Beck examines heartfelt issues of
loss, sadness and recovery with such candor it's like eavesdropping on a
therapy session or overhearing a sacred confession. Beck's singing has
never been so emotive or raw. "Guess I'm Doing Fine," with its plaintive
and acoustic strains, speaks of a denial known all too well by the
brokenhearted: "It's only lies that I'm living/It's only tears that I'm
crying/It's only you that I'm losing/Guess I'm doing fine." Beck's slow,
mournful tone suggests he is anything but fine; it's a brave admission of
emotional truth that is startling to behold.
The album's carefully
considered orchestrations blatantly turn away from Beck's previous
incarnation as the mainstream "Two Turntables and a Microphone"
funkmeister and return him solidly to his indie folk/country rock roots.
Somber strings, moody self-reflection and arrestingly sweeping textures
display a quiet, earnest musicianship plied not for fame or fortune (or
for Top 40 radio airplay), but for its own sake. "Side of the Road"
dabbles in alt-psychedelia with a hint of country, while "Already Dead,"
with its clean acoustics and stripped down lyrics, depicts the
acknowledgement of--and resignation to--a love turned to dust and
irretrievably blown away. The beautifully realized "Round the Bend" is a
luscious symphonic song, presented in the same enthralling vein of a
Duncan Sheik or Jeff Buckley composition. Beck has made a recording that
bucks the trends of the moment and defies all expectations. In doing so he
has crafted a meditative masterpiece of powerful resonance for the
ages.
-Slant Magazine
Notes: Album string arrangements by David Campbell, Bek's Father.
Tracklist:
The Golden
Age
Paper
Tiger
Guess I'm
Doing Fine
Lonesome
Tears
Lost
Cause
End Of The
Day
It's All In
Your Mind
Round The
Bend
Already
Dead
Sunday
Sun
Little
One
Side Of The
Road
Ship In A
Bottle *
Lyrics:
Put your hands on the wheel
Let the
golden age begin
Let the window down
Feel the moonlight on your
skin
Let the desert wind
Cool your aching head
Let the weight of
the world
Drift away instead
Ohh these days I barely get by
I
don't even try
It's a treacherous road
With a
desolated view
There's distant lights
But here they're far and
few
The sun don't shine
Even when it's day
You got to drive all
night
Just to feel like you're okay
Ohh these days I barely get
by
I don't even try
I don't even try
I don't even
try
Just like a paper tiger
Torn apart by
idle hands
Through the helter skelter morning
Fix yourself while you
still can
No more ashes-to-ashes
No more cinders from the
sky
Let all the laws of creation
Tell a dead man how to
die
The deserts down below us
And the storms up above
Like a
stray dog gone defective
Like a paper tiger in the sun
Looking
through a broken diamond
To make the past what should be
Through the
ruins and the weather
Capsized boats in the sea
Deserts down
below us
The storms up above
Like a stray dog gone defective
Like
a paper tiger in the sun
I just hold on to nothing
And see how
long nothing lasts
The deserts down below us
And the storms up
above
Like a stray dog gone defective
Like a paper tiger in the noon
sun
There's one road to the morning
There's one road to the
truth
There's one road back to civilization
But there's no road back
to you
There's a bluebird at my window
I can't
hear the songs he sings
All the jewels in heaven
They don't look the
same to me
I just wade the tides that turned
'Til I learn to leave
the past behind
It's only lies that I'm livin'
It's only tears that
I'm cryin'
It's only you that I'm losin'
I guess I'm doing
fine
All the battlements are empty
And the moon is laying
low
Yellow roses in the graveyard
I got no time to watch them
grow
Now I bade a friend farewell
I can do whatever pleases
me
It's only lies that I'm livin'
It's only tears that I'm
cryin'
It's only you that I'm losin'
I guess I'm doing fine
I
press my face up to the window
To see how warm it is inside
I see
the things that I've been missing
Missing all this time
It's only
lies that I'm livin'
It's only tears that I'm cryin'
It's only you
that I'm losin'
I guess I'm doin' fine
I guess I'm doin'
fine
Lonesome tears
I can't cry them
anymore
I can't think of what they're for
Oh they ruin me every
time
But I'll try
And leave behind some days
These tears just
can't erase
I don't need them anymore
How could this love
ever-turning
Never turn its eye on me?
How could this love
ever-changing
Never change the way I feel?
Lazy sun
Your eyes
catch the light
With the promises that might
Come true for a
while
Oh I'll ride
Farther than I should
Harder than I
could
Just to meet you there
How could this love
ever-turning
Never turn its eye on me?
How could this love
ever-changing
Never change the way the feel?
Your sorry eyes cut through the
bone
Make it hard to leave you alone
Leave you here wearing your
wounds
Waving your guns at somebody new
Baby you're a lost, baby
you're a lost
Baby you're a lost cause
There's too many people
you used to know
They see you coming, they see you go
They know your
secrets and you know theirs
This town is crazy, nobody cares
Baby
you're a lost, baby you're a lost
Baby you're a lost cause
I'm tired
of fighting, I'm tired of fighting
Fighting for a lost
cause
There's a place where you are going
You ain't never been
before
No one laughing at your back now
No one's standing at your
door
That's what you thought love was for
Baby you're a lost, baby
you're a lost
Baby you're a lost cause
I'm tired of fighting, I'm
tired of fighting
Fighting for a lost cause
I’ve seen the end of the day come too
soon
Not a lot to say, not a lot to do
You played the game, you owe
nothing to yourself
Rest a day, for tomorrow you can't tell
You
can't tell
I've seen the end of the day come too late
Seen the
love you had turning into hate
Had to act like I didn't even
care
But I did so I got stranded standing there
Standing
there
It's nothing that I haven't seen before
But it still kills
me like it did before
No it's nothing that I haven't seen before
But
it still kills me like it did before
I've seen the end of the day
come too soon
Like the prison dogs they set out after you
You owe
nothing to the past but wasted time
To serve a sentence that was only
in your mind
In your mind
It's nothing that I haven't seen
before
But it still kills me like it did before
No it's nothing that
I haven't seen before
But it still kills me like it did
before
Well it's all in your mind
Well it's
all in your mind
Yeah it's all in your mind
Well it's all in your
mind
And I wanted to be
And I wanted to be
Your good
friend
Well I cannot believe
You got a devil
up your sleeve
And he's talking to me
And I cannot believe
And I
wanted to be
And I wanted to be
Your good friend
Well you're all scared and stiff
A sick
stolen gift
And the people you're with
They're all scared and
stiff
And I wanted to be
And I wanted to be
Your good friend
We don't have to worry
Life goes where
it does
Faster than any bullet
From an empty gun
Turn yourself
over
Loose change we could spend
Grinding down diamonds
Round
round round the bend
Round round round the bend
People pushing
harder
Up against themselves
Make their daggers sharper
Than
their faces tan
Babe it's your time now
Loose change we could
spend
When we are going
Round round round the bend
Round round
round the bend
Time wears away all the pleasures of the
day
All the treasures you could hold
Days turn to sand, losing
strength in every hand
They can't hold you anymore
Already dead to
me now
Already dead to me now
'Cause it feels like I'm watching
something die
Love looks away in the harsh light of the day
On
the edge of nothing more
Days fade to black in the light of what they
lack
Nothing's measured by what it needs
Already dead to me
now
Already dead to me now
'Cause it feels like I'm watching
something dying
Haven't got a lot to learn
And my eyes,
they stray again
Looking for a satellite
In the rays of heaven
again
There's no other ending Sunday sun
Yesterdays are ending,
Sunday sun
Ohhhhhh ohhhhhh
Jealous minds walk in a line
And
their faces jade the strain
Stranded in infinity rooms
And they're
safe from any harm
There's no other ending Sunday sun
Yesterdays are
ending, Sunday sun
Ohhhhhh ohhhhhh
There's no other ending
Sunday sun
Yesterdays are ending, Sunday sun
There's no other ending
Sunday sun
Yesterdays are mending, Sunday sun
Ohhhhhh
ohhhhhh
Go to sleep, we're so tired now
All
together in a snakepit of souls
New days, throw your chains away
Try
to hang your hopes on the wind
Little one, just a little way
today
All we need is waiting
Night rise like the evening
prize
In a turnstile, backwards we fly
Cold bones, tied together
by
Black ropes we pulled from a swing
Little one, just a little way
today
All our dreams are waking
Can't stand on crooked
legs
I'm cross-eyed to the wall
In these harbor lights
Satellites
explode
Drown drown, sailors run aground
In a sea-change,
nothing is safe
Strange waves push us every way
In a stolen boat,
we'll float away
Little one, just a little way today
All we need is
waiting
Little one, just a little way today
All our dreams are
waking
Little one, hold on, hold on
All our dreams are
waking
Something better than this
Some place
I'd like to go
To let all I have learned
Tell me what I
know
About the kind of life
I never thought I'd live
'Til the
ugly truth
Showed me what it did
Let it pass on the side of
the road
What a friend could tell me now
On a borrowed
dime
In a different light
You will see what
The other side looks
like
In a random room
Behind an iron door
Kick an empty
can
Across an empty floor
Let it pass on the side of the
road
What a friend could tell me now
When I called you in the morning
You
were struggling for sense
You were journeying through memories so
vicious
You made all your dying wishes
Come true
But I know
you're gonna try
To live without love by and by
But that's not
living
That's just time going by
Going by, my love
Another
ship in the bottle
Has got no place to sail
To see the waves getting
darker every hour
The stars have lost their power
In the
sky
But I know you're gonna try
To live without love by and
by
But that's not livin'
That's just time going by
Going by, my
love
* Track 13 (Bonus) on Japanese LP