Beck’s Morning Phase has won album of the year at the 2015 Grammy awards. The US singer triumphed over competition from Beyoncé’s self-titled album, Ed Sheeran’s x, Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour and Pharrell’s Girl.
The album was widely praised as a return to form on its release after a run of more experimental records – one of which, 2012’s Song Reader, was released as sheet music. Morning Phase was marketed as a “companion piece” Beck’s similarly doleful breakup record Sea Change, released in 2002.
The album was partly recorded at Jack White’s studio Third Man in Nashville. Beck recently described it as: “a very kind of simple, traditional singer-songwriter record. But I guess the Sam Smith and the Ed Sheeran records are in that vein too.”
