Beck
"Colors"
(Capitol (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK))
Beck has been alternating serious-sounding mellowed-out albums with self-consciously funkified beat-happy discs for more than two decades. So it was to be expected that the downcast shimmer of 2014's "Morning Phase" _ which pulled off a Kanye West-irritating Grammy album-of-the-year victory _ would be followed by an uptempo affair with designs on the dance floor.
What is surprising is just how peppy and patently unironic "Colors" is. Produced by Greg Kurstin, who used to play keyboards in Beck's band and who has gone on to chart-topping success with Adele, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, and others, the 11-song collection is the most unabashedly pop album of the post-modern-pastiche artist's career. "Colors" does have vaguely trippy moments, like the quasi-psychedelic "Wow," in which the 47-year-old songwriter rather lamely trots out absurdist couplets such as "Standing on the lawn doin' jiu jitsu / Girl in a bikini with the Lamborghini shih tzu." But for the most part, the album's big drum and boisterous synth sound is straightforward in its courting of radio airplay, or at least a featured slot on the summer festival circuit. It effectively demonstrates that Beck still has the skills to play in the pop marketplace, but in doing so, his identity becomes less distinct. _ Dan DeLuca
