Beck kicks it

“I’ve been walking on these streets so long, I don’t know where they’re going to lead anymore,” Beck sings on “Volcano”, the exquisite closing track to his potent, albeit abbreviated, new CD Modern Guilt. There are stretches on Modern Guilt that feel a little like that – the melodies and vocals seem familiar, but the structures and rhythms at times feel like a wrong turn.

Amplifying the techno/industrial motifs on 2006’s The Information, Beck here lets loose the percussion dogs. From the pulsing kick/bass beats underlying “Orphans” to the rolling thunder fills of “Chemtrails” to the indescribably chaotic “Replica,” drums are at the forefront of most of these songs.

The album begins strong, kicking off with the two typically twisted avante-pop gems in “Orphans” and Gamma Ray” The catchy, lilting bridge of “Orphans” showcases Beck’s strong, often underrated, melodic sensibilities. "Chemtrails" is probably my favorite song on the album, starting out as an ethereal dirge before a thunderous onslaught of precision drum fills and rolls takes it to exalted new levels. Melodically, the title track sounds so much like a leftover from the Mutation sessions that the jaunty rhythm feels almost incongruent.

The mid-section of the CD drags, problematic for an album with only 10 tracks. “Youthless” is a pretty good pseudo techno/dance track, but it’s the kind of song I usually skip when they show up on a Beck album. On “Walls”, Beck and producer Danger Mouse attempt to camouflage an unsure melody with distracting, noisily reverberating snare fills. “Replica” buries its haunting vocal line under a raucous, confusing rhythm track that never quite allows the song to sink in (although I do appreciate the orchestral nod to George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” that closes the song).

But things kick back in gear with the menacing bass of “Soul of a Man” and searing guitar fills on “Profanity Prayers”, culminating with the lovely, rueful “Volcano”.

I don’t think Modern Guilt quite compares to the greatest Beck albums. I set a pretty high standard, though, as Mutations and Sea Change are my favorite albums by any artist in the last ten years. But the good songs ("Orphans," "Chemtrails," "Modern Guilt," "Volcano") are suffused with the same elegiac majesty of his best work, and Beck remains the most consistent, challenging artist working today. He may not know where the streets are leading anymore, but I’m following him wherever he goes.