As expected, new Beck album is finally on the horizon. The genre-hopping songwriter has announced Ride Lonesome, his first collection of new material since 2019’s Hyperspace, arriving Sept. 18 via Capitol Records. The news comes after the April release of its title track, a reflective single that signaled a creative shift back toward the hushed, atmospheric soundscapes of Sea Change and Morning Phase.
With confirmation that the musicians with which Beck collaborated on those albums (Smokey Hormel, Joey Waronker, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Roger Joseph
Manning Jr., and Jason Falkner) back in the fold, now comes a second preview. “In the Night” is a subdued meditation on late-night introspection, pairing Beck’s understated vocal with lush instrumentation in a track produced by Beck and mixed by longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich.
The song arrives alongside a cinematic, albeit somewhat depressing, video directed by Mikai Karl and starring distinctive French character actor Denis Lavant (Beau Travail, Mauvais Sang).
Beck says he convened with his longtime touring band “at my favorite studio (Room B at United Studios in Hollywood). It had been a decade since we went in the studio
and recorded Morning Phase. This time It felt like the playing and the chemistry had evolved and deepened — a sound that’s come together over the decades of working together. While we were revisiting a musical and physical place, it also felt like we were finding new sounds and emotional textures along the way.”
As SPIN noted when “Ride Lonesome,” the new material marks a notable departure from the sleek, electronic textures of Hyperspace. Beck will begin the Ride Lonesome tour Sept. 16 in Vancouver. In recent days, he appeared at all three Music of Wes Anderson tribute concerts at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, performing everything from Love’s “Alone Again Or” and the Faces’ “Ooh La La” to the late Elliott Smith’s “Needle in the Hay.”
Here is the track list for Ride Lonesome:
1. Ride Lonesome
2. Run Away
3. In the Night
4. Failed Words
5. Bleed
6. Disappearing Act
7. For Your Love
8. Slow Canyon
9. It Ends Right Here
10. Falling Through My Hands
11. If You Don’t Know What Love Is
12. Beyond the Light