Pick Your Poison: Monday 10-28-13

There’s something about the way that Beck fits into my life that is strange. He’s never the sort of artist I jump to and can immediately pinpoint as one of my all-time favorites, yet a careful look at my music listening habits point to a liking of his music to the point of near obsession. Whenever I put my music player on shuffle, I may skip over a bunch of songs that don’t strike my fancy, yet inevitably play any Beck song that comes up from start to finish. I can’t tell you the last time I listened to one of his albums from start to finish (it’s been at least a couple years), and I’m hesitant to tell you which Beck album is my favorite, since the answer technically changes based on my mood at that particular moment. Sure, Odelay is the go-to response, but the non-stop party vibe of Midnite Vultures can grab me far more than most people, and Sea Change is perfect for those introspective days. Speaking of Sea Change, there’s been rumors floating around (more than a few perpetuated by Beck himself) that a new album has been in the works for awhile that’s largely acoustic and a “spiritual cousin” to that 2002 record. Yet the couple of singles he’s released so far this year in the form of “I Won’t Be Long,” “Defriended” and “Gimme” all sound a lot like the more electronic-based work he’s done on albums like Modern Guilt and The Information. Of course they were only singles, and were intended to be standalone tracks that simply didn’t work thematically with everything else Beck’s been working on recently. Well, the good news is that the long-awaited “acoustic” album now has a title, a label and a ballpark release date. Beck has signed to Capitol Records, which will release Morning Phase in February. Exactly what date in February remains to be determined, along with a final tracklisting and other pieces of information. But at least we now know SOMETHING, and can start building the excitement towards likely disappointment. Considering how beloved Sea Change is, it’s going to be tough to try and recapture that magic, though the fact that Beck is working with most of the same people he did back in 2002, it could well be easier to recapture than you might think. So now we wait. Hopefully we’ll have our first taste of a song from the album before the end of the year. In the meantime, maybe enjoy today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. There’s some strong tracks today from Callow, Carl Kruger, Fairchild, Gentlemen Hall (covering Kendrick Lamar), Jeremiah Jae, Midnite on Pearl Beach, Setting SUn and Yellow6. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Disclosure, Eminem, Mogwai and Weekender.