Sea Change (album)

Untitled

Sea Change is an alternative rock album by Beck and was released in September 2002. Inspired by the dissolution of a relationship, Sea Change received glowing reviews upon its release and is often considered to be a highlight in Beck's discography.

Details

Sea Change features ornate string arrangements and soft acoustic guitar finger-picking. Much of Beck's trademark recondite, ironic lyrics are replaced by more sincere, simpler lyrical content. On Sea Change, Beck eschews the heavy sampling of his previous albums for real, live instrumentation. In interviews, Beck cited the breakup with his longtime girlfriend as the major influence on the album. With its lovelorn lyrics, critics have compared Sea Change to Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and the works of Nick Drake. "Paper Tiger" draws inspiration from Serge Gainsbourg, in particular the groundbreaking 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson.

Sea Change peaked at #8 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and was eventually certified gold in March 2005. In the UK charts, it peaked at #20.

In 2002, Sea Change was one of only two albums to receive Rolling Stone magazine's highest rating - five stars - the other being Bruce Springsteen's The Rising. Template:RS500

Sea Change was released with four different album covers, each version containing distinct artwork on the CD and the booklet. There are also different hidden messages (lyrical snippets) written under each version's CD tray.

The Sea Change album covers can be downloaded from Beck's website as PC wallpaper.

Track listing

All songs written by Beck Hansen.

1. "The Golden Age" – 4:35
2. "Paper Tiger" – 4:36
3. "Guess I'm Doing Fine" – 4:49
4. "Lonesome Tears" – 5:38
5. "Lost Cause" – 3:47
6. "End of the Day" (originally titled "Nothing I Haven't Seen") – 5:03
7. "It's All in Your Mind" – 3:06
8. "Round the Bend" – 5:15
9. "Already Dead" – 2:59
10. "Sunday Sun" – 4:45
11. "Little One" – 4:27
12. "Side of the Road" – 3:23
13. "Ship in the Bottle" (Japanese version only) - 3:12

Personnel

Performers

• Beck Hansen – vocals, acoustic guitar, background vocals, electric guitar, percussion, synth, glockenspiel, banjo, harmonica, keyboards, piano, string arrangement, wurlitzer
• Justin Meldal-Johnsen – electric bass, upright bass, percussion, background vocals, glockenspiel, electric guitar, piano
• Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – clavinet, synth, background vocals, percussion, piano, wurlitzer, banjo, indian banjo, glockenspiel, harmonium
• Smokey Hormel – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, acoustic slide guitar, percussion, background vocals, bamboo saxophone, megamouth, piano, tape recorder
• Joey Waronker – drums, percussion, background vocals, beatbox drums
• James Gadson – drums
• Jason Falkner – electric guitar, background vocals, percussion
• David Campbell – string arrangement, conducting
• Nigel Godrich – keyboards, percussion, string treatment, synth
• Suzie Katayama – cello

Other

• Nigel Godrich – production, engineering, mixing
• Darrell Thorp – assistant engineering
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• Autumn de Wilde – cover photo
• Jeremy Blake – artwork
• Kevin Reagan, Beck – art direction, design
• Ekaterina Kenney – Geffen Creative

External links

• Sea Change at MusicBrainz
• Sea Change at MusicBrainz (Japanese edition)