Going home through Hyperspace: Beck’s comforting closer to a discomforting decade

For over twenty-five years, Beck has been a known variable in music for his experimental pop and genre-defining innovation. Hyperspace marks fourteen studio albums, his third of the 2010s, and twenty years since Midnite Vultures (1999); if you put that album next to this one, the only similarity would be the songwriter.

Beck’s 2010s albums have been as stylistically varied as ever, from the warm folk-based sounds of 2014’s Morning Phase to his take of contemporary pop in 2017’s Colors. Hyperspace marks another change, closing out the decade with an easily accessible synth pop album that provides a much more typically Beck outlook than his more direct preceding album. Add in Pharrell Williams as co-producer, and the end result is a tight, minimalist collection of beautiful songs.

Hyperspace is Beck at his most adept, creating easy going synthpop vibes and some high energy tracks while maintaining a healthy degree of “Beck-ness.” Lead single “I Saw Lightning” is a well-executed throwback to early Beck, the slide guitar reminiscent of “Loser” and other early works, without feeling dated. Throw in the pumped up background vocals and some harmonica and a real old-school folk feel infuses with the atmospheric “ah’s” and synth grooves. It definitely feels like Beck looked back to Mellow Gold (1994) and Sea Change (2002) while recording. 

However, this album is not in any way a Beck retrospective. If anything, it is more of Beck’s take on prevailing trends in alternative music, while molding it in his own image. It is also safe to say, by now, that Beck does keep up with the times, and certain sonic references keep the album fresh. One of my favorites is the very clear influence on “Chemical”: the synths sound like something from Tame Impala’s Currents (2015). Some of the mainstream pop production and mood from Colors remains present, but besides “Die Waiting” this is kept to a minimum, and in any case it does not overstay its welcome — it simply adds another layer to some of these pieces, tempered by the strange concoctions Beck cooks up. 

This interest in mirroring the times in alternative music manifest not only in his songs but in the presentation, as the album cover features the title in a groovy retro font and in Japanese katakana rather than in Latin lettering. 

Beck’s lyrics and singing are typical: not a stylistic reinvention but exploring some new territory, and reflecting like the atmospheric themes would suggest. In fact the album’s name comes from the life-saving feature in the 1979 arcade game Asteroids, and according to Beck, “just in general, I think we could all use that button.”

“Uneventful Days” and “Dark Places,” along with the title track, fully embody this reflection on the current feeling of jeopardy and confusion. This yearning for escapism has become a thematic trend in the latter half of this decade, from MGMT to Solange, and while other artists focus on more regional or personal issues, Beck creates this stratospheric getaway, a sonic safespace away from it all. Considering the timing of the release, right before everyone heads home for the holidays, this creates a nice contextual fusion of our homes and this new haven: Beck has made self-conscious, contemporary pop into holiday music, in the most alternative way. 

There are very few negatives here. Some of these songs were, in their infancy, left off of Colors, and while they are by no means throwaways, “Die Waiting” definitely feels like it could have been left in that thematic environment. Hyperspace is pretty unwavering in quality, but it is strange to have such a song that could have simply been added to make Colors a twelve track release. Regardless, this is the only part of the album that feels even slightly out of place. 

“Everlasting Nothing” takes some vocals that would fit nicely on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon (1973) and a pan flute part that sounds like an out take from Arcade Fire’s “Everything Now” to create a soothing closer that, like those works, leads to a state of ending acceptance, to oblivion. As paradoxically as ever, Beck awkwardly but masterfully closes out the decade.

Article by Stanley Quiros