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Modern Guilt
by Beck


8.1

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 40 votes
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Official Artist Site

The 10th album for the Los Angeles artist was produced by Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton.

LABEL:	Interscope
RELEASE DATE:	08 July 2008
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Phoenix

Modern Guilt is a hot thing of indefinite course.

Filter

Though he has never had just one sonic home, and Modern Guilt is no exception to this rule, Beck is somehow more aware while puffing out his waves of broken poetry as opposed to the casual seed-spitting he has been known to turn to. [Summer 2008, p.91]

Entertainment Weekly

Burton makes the ultimate endgame sound like a party you'd still want to be invited to--one that even Beck might enjoy, despite himself.

All Music Guide

Here, they [Beck and Danger Mouse] deliver enough substance and style to make Modern Guilt an effective dosage of 21st century paranoia.

Observer Music Monthly

Beck, at last, is back.

Paste Magazine

All this adds up to Beck’s darkest record to date, one that captures the uncertainty of 2008 as well as "Mellow Gold" distilled apathy in 1994.

Uncut

So Beck is finally fun again, and you suspect the person most surprised by how well Modern Guilt turned out is the guy who made it.

Billboard

Nothing makes as quick of an impact as 'Crazy,' but give the tunes time and you'll find they stick around.

Dot Music

Modern Guilt takes that album's insecurity in the face of technology running away with us, to a tightly-written 10 songs that in part seem to focus on what, precisely, we have done to the world; and how on earth are we meant to get back in touch with it?

Hartford Courant

Beck has shown an affinity for retro-leaning styles on his previous records, too, but he's never found a sound quite as consistent or compelling as the one Danger Mouse dials in here.

Rolling Stone

Taken as a whole, the album's first five songs stand among Beck's strongest work.

Tiny Mix Tapes

2008 requires more focus and more grace. Modern Guilt delivers both.

Boston Globe

With 10 songs clocking in at just 33 minutes, Modern Guilt feels fleeting, even temporal, and that seems to be the point. It's destined to be an artifact of an age that's rocketing, Beck suspects, toward oblivion.

Mojo

So does the pairing work? The answer, from the first, strutting beats of Modern Guilt's opener, 'Orphans,' is a gleaming Yes. [Aug 2008, p.104]

Q Magazine

The slacker boy wonder has grown up to be a man on a new mission. [Aug 2008, p.134]

Delusions of Adequacy

There isn’t anything outlandishly overdone on this album as Beck offers a more stripped down approach. These are obvious efforts to return to a more cohesive, solid form and with a steady dose of subtle harmonies, crafty melodies and hooks, interesting instrumentation and oh yeah, two songs that feature Cat Power, Beck doesn’t disappoint.

cokemachineglow

The concept of a modern type of guilt is probably supposed to imply the effortlessly achievable comfort and depressed humility with which much of the album is sung. Perhaps ironically, the best way to enjoy Modern Guilt is with blinders on to this sort of temporal perspective.

Los Angeles Times

Modern Guilt is “Wall-E” for anyone who prefers rock 'n' roll to kids' movies.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

"Odelay" this surely isn't, but Beck it surely is--a chameleon who changes colors just enough to keep himself interested.

No Ripcord

While not the most creative thing he’s produced, it feels naturally cohesive and stands as an interesting piece on its own.

Prefix Magazine

Modern Guilt doesn’t quite make it to that flashpoint, but it certainly points the way to a musical future brighter than the endless, mirrored hall of 'Devils Haircut' rewrites that songs like 'E-Pro' suggested was coming. And that is a sea change worth waiting for.

Blender

Produced by hip-hop head case Danger Mouse, who is half of Gnarls Barkley, Modern Guilt mixes ancient rock--mainly the incense-and-peppermints-flavored ’60s psychedelia of Revolver-era Beatles, the Zombies and Pink Floyd--with the woozy, abstract beats Danger Mouse manages to turn into freaked-out fun.

Slant Magazine

Recently, Beck too often sounds like he's playing with his toys and not intent on making actual music, but the new album's brief 10 tracks prove that he's almost always more interesting when he's not having fun.

Spin

In a scant 30-plus minutes, Modern Guilt modestly proves that it's still restlessness, both artistic and personal, that drives the only living boy in Los Angeles.

Pitchfork

Though Modern Guilt is more direct and consistent than his last two scattershot LPs, it also finds the disillusioned L.A. hippie struggling to balance his deathly outlook with his more crowd-pleasing inclinations.

Drowned In Sound

It sits alone in his cannon as being slightly uncomfortable but in turn is a brilliantly concise work (it runs to a little over 30 minutes).

Austin Chronicle

At just more than 33 minutes, Modern Guilt is compacted for impact and delivers.

PopMatters

This unpretentious attitude permeates the album’s writing and terse production whose results are self-evident: it lacks the unique resonating timbres one is accustomed to with Beck.

musicOMH.com

It's hard to deny the fresh, eclectic sounds of Walls or the sheer beauty in the closing sounds of Volcano, but overall, if this is any indication, Danger Mouse's productions are losing their novelty, and Beck remains at an uneven point in his career.

The Guardian

Modern Guilt feels like a vanity project: there is no attempt to reach out, none of the classic pop singles Beck has been revered for, just 10 inward-looking, unlovable tracks.

NOW Magazine

Everything moves in linear fashion backwards, with only Danger Mouse’s bold battering saving Beck from a horrifying relapse into dreary Sea Change melancholia.

The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 40 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kurt C. gave it a6:
Beck's musical slump continues. It's really a tragedy because he was on such a prolific ride with every album he released from 1994 and 1996's modern classics "Mellow Gold" and "Odelay," respectively, to 1998's stunning off-roader "Mutations," on to 1999's eclectic grower "Midnite Vultures," and finally to his career's pinnacle, 2002's depressingly beautiful "Sea Change". The gossip around "Sea Change" was the love of his life broke his heart and out came his most raw, honest and ingenious work of art. It also drained him of everything he had left. Since then, Beck has struggled to create anything that can touch the greatness of any of his previous work. This year's "Modern Guilt" continues to see the decline of Beck and it really saddens me. I saw Beck on his "Sea Change" tour at Wolf Trap and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. He was ON and his band really helped carry him. Fast-forward a few years later to 2005's "Guero" tour at The Patriot Center and it was like night and day. Beck could barely perform the last half of his set. He didn't even MOVE. His stage hands had to switch his guitars on and off him, step on his effects pedals for him, and basically act as his crutch just to get him through. There was no encore which is unheard of for a headliner. That's the feeling and impression I get with Beck's latest albums and now with "Modern Guilt"...he's just barely getting by and simply fulfilling his contractual obligations. Not that there aren't some diamonds in the rough here (certainly not his best songs ever, but they're relatively good), such as "Orphans," "Gamma Ray" and title track "Modern Guilt," but the bus stops there. The remaining seven tracks meander off into cruise control, letting producer DJ Danger Mouse seemingly take full control thereby giving "Modern Guilt" a disappointingly un-Beck feel. What is the Beck feel you ask? Listen to the range of experimentation going on with every album before "Guero": boldly diving into multiple genres with a keen ear for melody, funk, folk, and mischievousness. Beck doesn't seem to be having fun anymore, not that "Sea Change" was a fun album...far from it, but it had soul. That's what's lacking from post-Sea Change Beck for me and I really want him back. Snap out of it, buddy. Please.

Allan H. gave it an8:
Solid Beck album, some great tunes like "Modern Guilt" and "Volcano".

Robert B. gave it a9:
This album is very great... so enjoyable from the beginning to the end. one of the best works of the late beck... surely the best thing after sea change.

Franklin Fudge gave it a1:
Beck hasn't made a good album since the 1990s, which is unfortunate, since he was one of the 90s' most reliable indie rockers. Even Danger Mouse couldn't turn his career around, and Danger Mouse has been infallible lately. Stay away.

jeronimo gave it a9:
This is one of those albums that grows on you after each listen. There are so many things happening underneath, sounds that you don't hear at the first listens. The songs seem really simple and straightforward, but it's just a first impression, be assured. Beck is back with an excellent album, and songs like Youthless, Chemtrails or Gamma Ray are real gems.

Ilya R gave it an8:
It's amazing how rich this album is in both substance and music while still tight and very riffy in the Beck mode. One of his best in a while.

ze duke gave it an8:
a good album, solid 8 for me. a few great songs in there, but all in all a bit too mellow for my taste.

Modern Guilt by Beck

Modern Guilt
by Beck