Beck has won the best rock album award at the 57th Grammy Awards for his album Morning Phase. His 12th album pipped U2’s Songs of Innocence, Ryan Adams’s self titled album, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Hypnotic Eye and the Black Keys’ Turn Blue to the title.
Sea Change marked a dramatic upturn in Beck’s fortunes. It was the 44-year-old’s first “proper” album since Sea Change in 2008. In the intervening period he had been working on a series of quixotic, low-key projects – including Record Club, in which he curated full-album covers of classic records. In December 2012, he released Song Reader, 20 songs presented only as sheet music.
Morning Phase was greeted with ecstatic reviews on its release last February. It was ranked the eighth best album of 2104 by Guardian writers. “There is something reassuringly simple and old-fashioned about the way this album sounds,” wrote Harriet Gibsone. “Perhaps this is why, amid the digital dystopia of 2014, it is one of the year’s best.”
