Beck - Ride Lonesome [CD]

Beck has made a career out of never staying anywhere long enough to be pinned down, and Ride Lonesome is the first record in a while that sounds unhurried about it. The title borrows from a 1959 Budd Boetticher western, and the album shares that film's economy: nothing extended past the point it has earned.

The songs sit closer to Sea Change and Morning Phase than to his funk records, but with more grit in the recording. "Ride Lonesome" opens on acoustic guitar and a vocal mixed close enough to hear the room. "Failed Words" and "It Ends Right Here" are the bleakest writing he has done in years, and he resists the urge to bury them in arrangement. "Disappearing Act" and "For Your Love" bring back some of the sideways pop instinct, and "Beyond The Light" closes the album on something close to hope without overselling it.

Thirty-odd years into this, Beck no longer has to prove he can do anything. Ride Lonesome is what it sounds like when he picks one thing and does it properly.

Compact disc edition on Capitol.