Beck is returning from Hyperspace after seven long years. The “Saw Lightning” singer announced the long-awaited follow-up to that 2019 Grammy-winning LP on Wednesday (July 15), when he revealed that his 16th studio album, Ride Lonesome, is due out on Sept. 18 via Capitol Records.
“My new album Ride Lonesome is coming out this fall. The musicians from my original touring and recording band that I recorded Sea Change, Morning Phase and Mutations with — Smokey Hormel [guitar], Joey Waronker [drums], Justin Meldal-Johnsen [bass], Roger Joseph Manning Jr. [keyboards], and Jason Falkner [guitar] — reconvened with me at my favorite studio (Room B at United Studios in Hollywood),” said Beck in a statement about reuniting his crack band from those classic albums.
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“We had [producer] Nigel Godrich, who worked on Sea Change and Mutations with us mixing all the songs. It had been a decade since we went in the studio and recorded Morning Phase,” Beck added. “This time It felt like the playing and the chemistry had evolved and deepened — a sound that’s come together over the decades of working together. While we were revisiting a musical and physical place, it also felt like we were finding new sounds and emotional textures along the way.”
Beck released the contemplative, can’t-put-your-arms-around-a-memory title track in April, which taps into a similar haunted-by-love vibe as the just-released second single, “In the Night.” The ghostly ballad featuring finger-picked acoustic guitar, a swaying string section and subtle horns is anchored by the indie veteran’s sad and lonesome vocals.
“Darkness came on by/ With stories of the sky/ To bury all the lies/ In the night, in the night/ Your teachers and your saints/ They’ll walk you to the grave/ And say you’ll find your way,” he sings on the tune that was accompanied by an equally pensive video directed by Mikai Karl starring French character actor Denis Lavant (Holy Motors, Gagarine). In the clip, Lavant is filmed crying over some unseen emotional challenge, then lighting a cigarette and shaking his head as he tosses his fedora aside and moodily contemplates his fate while pacing around a cramped apartment.
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The tracklist for Ride Lonesome is: “Ride Lonesome,” “Run Away,” “In the Night,” “Failed Words,” “Bleep,” “Disappearing Act,” “For Your Love,” “Slow Canyon,” “It Ends Right Here,” “Falling Through My Hands,” “If You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “Beyond the Light.”
Beck will support the new album on the Ride Lonesome North American tour, slated to kick off on Sept. 16 in Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and run through an Oct. 31 show at The Truth in Nashville.
