The chameleonic alt-pop star returns to the fold with the musicians behind ‘Sea Change’ and ‘Morning Phase’, resulting in similarly masterful melancholia
Last spring, Beck brought an orchestra to London’s Royal Albert Hall for two shows centred largely on his 2002 album ‘Sea Change’. Its wistful songs had always carried rich orchestral arrangements, but he had never performed them with a full ensemble. On the first night, he told the crowd how much it meant to finally play them with 85 musicians.
Those concerts left Beck wanting to record with an orchestra, though he gave little away about what he was making. He called it an “undisclosed, unnamed project”. Eighteen months on, that project has become ‘Ride Lonesome’, a 12 song album whose intimate orchestral pop recalls ‘Sea Change’ and its 2014 companion, ‘Morning Phase’.
The album is a beautiful, often haunting look at loneliness and loss. Its title track introduces that mood with soft acoustic guitar and a voice that seems to be finding its way forward: “You got to ride lonesome”, Beck sings. “You got to try to find the road… And follow it all the way home, alone”. On ‘Falling Through My Hands’, a gentle guitar loop gives the song the feel of a lullaby, while the words lay bare what it means to lose someone: “I’m wanting you / But you’re falling through my hands this time”.
This is Beck’s first album since his divorce from Marissa Ribisi was finalised in September 2021, after nearly 15 years of marriage. The couple had already separated when he released the futuristic ‘Hyperspace’ in 2019. Where that record came during the upheaval, ‘Ride Lonesome’ sounds like a response to the life that followed.
‘Sea Change’ also arrived after a break-up, while ‘Morning Phase’ followed a serious back injury that threatened Beck’s career. As he faces another period of change, he has returned to musicians who helped shape those records. Nigel Godrich, a longtime Radiohead collaborator who produced ‘Sea Change’, mixed ‘Ride Lonesome’. There is plenty of sadness here, but moments of hope and acceptance give the album a comforting warmth.
Details
- Record label:Capitol Records
- Release date:September 18, 2026
