Beck - Sea Change

While Beck is guilty of many musical crimes, the goodness of this album almost (but not quite) absolves him of them. Sea Change is the point at which Beck began to show both maturity and musicianship. Of course it didn't hurt that Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Andy Sturmer (both of Jellyfish fame) played about a dozen instruments each on this album. As a Jellyfish fan, you'll never convince me that Roger and Andy weren't the real reason why this album is great.

Sea Change is simply gorgeous. It's layered thick with a wide variety of instruments, and the melodies are the very best Beck has ever created (It's not hard. The dude has a bunch of total turds in his catalogue). Anyway, let's not let my overall dissatisfaction with Beck overshadow the fact that this album is brilliant and beautiful. The songs are the stars of this album, not Beck, which is why it works so well. If you hate everything else Beck has ever done (and I wouldn't blame you if you do), this album will still be completely accessible to you. It's just that good.

Baleeted? No. This is the greatest evidence we have for the fact that Beck could make great music all the time if he really wanted to.