Beck: a leap into the past with the new single “Ride lonesome”

“Laughs lonesome” is the title of new single published by Beck this afternoon, April 20th. The song, which arrives after last January’s “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” collection with rarities, lesser-known pieces and covers, It presents itself as a folk ballad which opens with a solitary acoustic guitar, and is then enriched with piano, slide guitar and strings.

“You got to ride lonesome / You got to try to find your home,” Beck sings in a passage of the new single, which recovers the sounds of his 2002 acoustic masterpiece“Sea Change”, and in turn of the sister album “Morning Phase” of 2014with which the American musician won the “Album of the year” award at the Grammy Awards in 2015.

Produced by Beck himself and mixed by Nigel Godrich, “Ride Lonesome” thus seems to pave the way for a possible third chapter of a trilogy already composed of “Morning Phase” and “Sea Change”. At the moment, however, It is not known whether the single really anticipates a new studio album of the musician, whose last unreleased work remains “Hyperspace” from 2019, produced by Pharrell Williams and arrived after “Colors” from 2017. However, it is certain that Beck will announce a new tour tomorrow, as the artist himself made known on social media:

Regarding how the single “Ride Lonesome” was born, in an interview for “NPR”, Beck said:

“It’s been a bit of a lonely time. One of those moments in life where you stop and reflect on where you’ve been and where you’re going. When you go through difficult things, you often have to do it alone. You just have to move forward through whatever landscape of your life and circumstances you find yourself in. And I think there’s a kind of dark comfort in being able to get through the parts of life that aren’t so comfortable or easy, with a distant faith that will get you to the other side.”

Then talking about creative processthe musician explained: “The ultimate goal is to write something simple and universalwhich does not require too much effort to decipher. Simplicity is the goal. I haven’t always gotten there, but that’s what I’m aiming for. It’s a very beautiful sort of musical balance. Sometimes you feel like someone on the beach with a metal detector looking for some nuggets in the sand. Sometimes you do it for your own comfort or benefit. Other times you’re trying to understand something or express something you don’t fully understand. I write a song and I don’t know why, or where it came from, until years later I listen to it again and think, ‘Ah, it was obvious what it was about.'”

During the chat Beck also had the opportunity to talk about his time between his studio albums and his collaborations with other artists, from Gorillaz to Paul McCartney. The artist narrated: “After COVID I had to wait a couple of years to go back to work. But I wrote a lot of songs. It was a very prolific time for me. I did a song with Gorillaz and one with Paul McCartney, and we even made a fun video together. I co-wrote The Black Keys’ album titled ‘Ohio Players’. I think I wrote about ten or a dozen pieces. And then I constantly worked on my music.” He added: “I built a recording studio. In short, I lived. I’ve probably made enough material for multiple albums that no one will ever hearbut I hope it leads to something. I have a lot of things in the works. For the last four years I have been in the studio often, on and off, with my band. There’s a group of musicians I grew up with, who were my touring band in the early years. Everyone then went their own way, but every now and then we get together for a few days and make music. Yes, I have many different projects that I would like to do, so I hope there is time to carry them all forward.”