Colors – Beck ★★★½

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2017	Colors	Beck	★★★½	70	Rock	Alternative Rock

Beck’s 13th album, Colors, gets unfairly dismissed and criticized, because it lacks some of the hallmarks of Beck’s more acclaimed records. Beck typically bounces between records that are either kooky and experimental, or stripped down and serious; both styles have been successful in the past.  

Colors, in comparison, sounds …ordinary. It’s the closest thing to a pop record Beck had made to that point, filled with upbeat, single-quality, radio-friendly tracks that use popular production techniques of the mid 2010s. 

You still get weird moments like “Wow,” strange sounds and Beck-isms sprinkled in here and there. Most of those elements are synthetic though: harmonized, sometimes robotic, vocal effects; midi instruments like flutes and strings; drum machines and clapping. Every sound layer sounds very individualized and obvious, instead of a blended mix. Some of it is pretty corny or childish, with sing-song choruses, dance imagery and syncopated funk riffs. 

But even if “Up All Night” kind of feels like a rock version of The Weeknd’s 2015 hit “Can’t Feel My Face,” it, and most of the rest on Colors, are fun, good songs.  “Wow” is catchy and makes you laugh for all the right reasons. The computerized sounds on the title track open the record with a cool groove. “Dreams” and “I’m So Free” both have solid rock guitar parts, and you can’t help but dance or sing along to “Seventh Heaven.”  

Obviously, there are some misses here. The one slower song, “Fix Me” is tacked on at the very end of the album and doesn’t quite feel like it belongs with the rest. The dancy “Square One” feels a little redundant and was executed better a few times earlier on the record. Driven by a goofy piano part (that’s a compliment) “Dear Life” is a fine change of pace but has a pretty lame guitar solo (not a compliment).

Also, “Dreams” and “Wow,” both very good songs that I like listening to,  were singles that had been out for more than a year — released June 2015 and 2016, respectively— when Colors finally came out in October 2017. Hearing them in the context of the album felt a little jarring after hearing both so many times prior on their own. They’re the same kind of song that would work on the album, but I did feel a little let down when I saw they were added to Colors.