Beck's "Ride Lonesome" on Vinyl at High Rhodes Records, Frisco, Colorado

Beck has spent three decades refusing to make the same record twice, and his new album Ride Lonesome is a quiet, lush one. It’s his first full album of new material in seven years, since 2019’s Hyperspace. It came out September 18 on Capitol Records, and we have it at High Rhodes Records in Frisco, Colorado, on Green (Vintage Green) vinyl.

The album

Ride Lonesome has twelve songs, recorded with the players who made Sea Change, Morning Phase, and Mutations: Smokey Hormel, Joey Waronker, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., and Jason Falkner. Nigel Godrich, who also worked on Sea Change and Mutations, mixed the record. Beck says the sound has “come together over the decades of working together.” Start with the title track, which also has a duet version with Sierra Ferrell, and “In the Night,” built on nylon-string guitar and upright bass under a lush orchestral arrangement.

What the critics are saying

Rolling Stone's Jon Dolan calls it "a sublime return" to the somber folk-rock of Sea Change and Morning Phase. He describes an album of fragile acoustic melodies, desolate lyrics and spare, subtle arrangements that never turns sleepy, with standouts including "Falling Through My Hands" and the closer "Beyond the Light." Read the full review at Rolling Stone.