He made his name as something of an oddball, moving between rock, funk and hip-hop after breaking through with 1994’s Loser and The New Pollution two years later.
But singer-songwriter Beck Hansen’s most lasting music has generally been inspired by heartache. Having bared his soul on 2002’s Sea Change, he looked to a broken romance again on 2014’s mellow Morning Phase. Just a few months later, he wrote another set of sad songs and asked guest performers to sing them for him on the Beck Song Reader.
In terms of banishing his blues, that double header seems to have done the trick. Returning after three years away, he is heavy-hearted no longer and Colors, his 13th album, is an animated comeback with so many bright ideas that it might just endure in the same manner as his more downbeat classics.
