25022014 - Beck "Morning Phase"

For the record - I like Beck, and there was a time when I used to regard him as a genius. "Odelay" is a giant upper, and remains a classic album for the shaking of the booty. "Sea Change" remains my favorite Beck album though. I loved the melancholy beauty of that record when it was released, and I love it now. After my first listen to "Morning Phase" it seems like he is going for the same ethereal sadness this time, but he's lacking the songs. I know a lot of Beckheads (is that a thing?) will defend this album to death, just as I am certain that a lot of reviewers and general know-it-alls will not admit that this is just plain boring. At one point I thought that I had to be on the last song, but I was just halfway through, and on several songs I got associations to Sting. Neither are good signs. This might be a grower, but I shall be quite content to let it grow somewhere else, far away from my speakers. To me this is just a pile of beautifully packaged nothing.