Modern Guilt | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 7, 2008 [1] | |||
Recorded | 2008 | |||
Studio | Anonyme, Los Angeles | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 33:33 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | ||||
Beck chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Modern Guilt | ||||
|
Modern Guilt is the eleventh studio album by American musician Beck, released in 2008 by both DGC Records and XL Recordings. The album was produced by Beck and Danger Mouse [5] and features two contributions by Cat Power. [6]
Beck and Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) had been casual acquaintances prior to their collaboration on the album, as some of Beck's musicians had also performed with Danger Mouse's project Gnarls Barkley. [7] Beck said, "It did help that we share a lot of musical references. We spent the first week just talking about different records. His knowledge is pretty deep, especially with some of the obscure late-Sixties, early-Seventies rock." [7]
The original concept for the album was 10 short tracks, each around two minutes long, but Beck eventually chose to eliminate the shorter tracks. [7] Songs began with an acoustic guitar and drumbeat and selected songs would then be embellished upon, with Burton adding keyboard bass and Beck adding other instruments. [7] Beck described the album as the most intensive work he'd ever done: "It was like trying to fit two years of songwriting into two and a half months. ... I know I did at least 10 weeks with no days off, until four or five in the morning every night." [7]
At 33 minutes long, the album was Beck's shortest, with only two songs lasting longer than four minutes. [8]
In May 2008, it was announced that Beck would be releasing a then-untitled album in the summer. [9] Modern Guilt was released on July 7, 2008 in the UK and Europe and on the following day in the United States. [1] A vinyl record of the album, including download codes for the 320-kbit/s digital version of the album direct from the vinyl master, was released on July 22, 2008. [10]
In July 2009, launching his website's new Videotheque section, Beck uploaded a series of videos comprising acoustic band performances of every song on the album, recorded earlier in the year after returning home from his tour of Japan. [11]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 77/100 [12] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [13] |
The A.V. Club | B [14] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [15] |
The Guardian | [16] |
The Independent | [17] |
Los Angeles Times | [18] |
PopMatters | [19] |
Pitchfork | 7.0/10 [20] |
Rolling Stone | [21] |
Spin | 7/10 [22] |
The album received generally positive reviews upon release, earning a rating of 77 out of 100 on Metacritic. [12] Filter said of the album, "Beck is somehow more aware while puffing out his waves of broken poetry as opposed to the casual seed-spitting he has been known to turn to", [12] while AllMusic said that it was "an effective dosage of 21st century paranoia." [13] Some negative reviews, such as one from PopMatters , said that the album "lacks the unique resonating timbres one is accustomed to with Beck", [19] while The Guardian called it "a vanity project". [16]
In December 2008, Modern Guilt was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, but it lost to In Rainbows by Radiohead. [23]
The album entered both the Billboard 200 and the Canadian Albums Chart at number four, and gave Beck his first ever Top 10 placing on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number nine. The album was also Beck's second-best charting album in Australia, reaching number 13, behind his twelfth studio album Morning Phase , which debuted and peaked at number 5 in 2014. In the US, the album sold 84,000 copies in its first week. [24] Although successful, it did not match the first week sales of Beck's previous album, The Information (2006), which were 99,000. [24] In Canada, the album sold over 6,000 copies in its first week. [25]
Modern Guilt was awarded a silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association, which indicated sales of at least 30,000 copies throughout Europe. [26]
All songs written by Beck, except "Walls", written by Beck, Danger Mouse, Paul Guiot and Paul Piot.
Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Q | UK | 50 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | 23 [28] |
Rolling Stone | US | 50 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | 8 [29] |
WERS Boston | US | 50 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | 6 [30] |
Chart (2008) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA) [31] | 13 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [32] | 42 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [33] | 16 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [34] | 46 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [35] | 4 |
Danish Albums (Hitlisten) [36] | 32 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [37] | 33 |
French Albums (SNEP) [38] | 45 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [39] | 63 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [40] | 21 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [41] | 24 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [42] | 14 |
UK Albums (OCC) [43] | 9 |
US Billboard 200 [44] | 4 |
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard) [45] | 2 |
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) [46] | 2 |
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) [47] | 1 |
Chart (2008) | Position |
---|---|
US Billboard 200 [48] | 178 |
Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
World | July 8, 2008 | DGC | Digital download | — | [49] [ better source needed ] |
Argentina | CD | 1775441 | |||
Australia | 1775441 | ||||
Canada | B001150702 | ||||
United States | B0011507-02 | ||||
LP | B0011630-01 | ||||
United Kingdom | July 7, 2008 | CD | B001150702 | ||
XL | XLCD369 | ||||
LP | XLLP 369 | ||||
Europe | |||||
CD | XLCD369 |
Mellow Gold is the third studio album by American musician Beck, released on March 1, 1994, by DGC Records. Critics noted the album's hybrid of various styles including rock, hip hop, folk, blues, psychedelia, and country, as well as ironic, witty lyrics. Its decidedly anti-commercial attitude led to it becoming an unexpected commercial success, peaking at number thirteen in the United States and eventually being certified platinum. As of July 2008, Mellow Gold has sold over 1.2 million copies in the United States.
Odelay is the fifth studio album by American musician Beck, released on June 18, 1996, by DGC Records. The album featured several successful singles, including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution", and peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard 200. As of July 2008, the album had sold 2.3 million copies in the United States, making Odelay Beck's most successful album to date. Since its release, the album has appeared in numerous publications' lists of the greatest of the 1990s and of all time.
Midnite Vultures is the seventh studio album by American musician Beck, released on November 23, 1999, by DGC Records. While similar to most of Beck's previous albums in its exploration of widely varying styles, it did not achieve the same blockbuster success as his breakthrough album Odelay, but was still critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The album's sound marked a compositional departure from the psychedelic hip hop, alternative rock, and sample-based music in his previous albums towards a funk rock R&B style dance-pop, eurodance, eurodisco and Hi-NRG
Mutations is the sixth studio album by the American songwriter Beck, released on November 3, 1998, by DGC Records. Though less commercially successful than the preceding Odelay, it won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
Sea Change is the eighth studio album by American musician Beck, released on September 24, 2002, by Geffen Records. Recorded over a two-month period in Los Angeles with producer Nigel Godrich, the album features themes of heartbreak and desolation, solitude, and loneliness. For the album, much of Beck's trademark cryptic and ironic lyrics were replaced by simpler, more sincere lyrical content. He also eschewed the heavy sampling of his previous albums for live instrumentation. Beck cited the breakup with his longtime girlfriend as the major influence on the album.
Eight Arms to Hold You is the second studio album by alternative rock band Veruca Salt. It was released on February 11, 1997, through Outpost/Geffen Records.
Wildflowers is the second solo studio album by American musician Tom Petty, released on November 1, 1994. The album was the first released by Petty after signing a contract with Warner Bros. Records and the first of three albums produced by Rick Rubin. The album was certified 3× platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Satellite is the fourth studio album by American Christian nu metal band P.O.D. The album was released on September 11, 2001 debuting at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart with over 133,000 copies sold. It spent five consecutive weeks in the top 10 of that chart.
Guero is the ninth studio album by American musician Beck, released on March 29, 2005, by Interscope Records. It was produced with John King and Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers, who had worked with Beck on his 1996 album Odelay, as well as Tony Hoffer.
Away from the Sun is the second studio album by American rock band 3 Doors Down. It was released by Universal Music Group on November 12, 2002. The four singles released for the album were as follows: "When I'm Gone", "The Road I'm On", "Here Without You", and "Away from the Sun". The song "Sarah Yellin'" was originally recorded as "Sarah Yellin' 86" on 3 Doors Down's self-titled demo in 1997. The Away from the Sun recording sessions took place during the summer of 2002 with producer and engineer Rick Parashar at London Bridge Studio, in Seattle, Washington. Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson performed live with the band during their premiere party in Biloxi, Mississippi for Away from the Sun. The album has sold eight million copies worldwide, including over four million in the US alone. Away from the Sun: Deluxe Edition, a remastered version with bonus tracks, was released on August 11, 2023.
Never Gone is the fifth studio album released by American vocal group Backstreet Boys as the follow-up to their fourth studio album Black & Blue (2000), after a short hiatus. Never Gone was originally due for release in 2004, but the release date for the album was pushed to June 14, 2005, for unknown reasons.
Back Home is the seventeenth solo studio album by Eric Clapton. It was released 29 August 2005 internationally and a day later in the U.S. It is his first album containing new, original material since Reptile (2001), as the previous release Me and Mr. Johnson is an album of song covers of Robert Johnson.
The Information is the tenth studio album by American musician Beck, released on October 3, 2006 by Interscope Records. It was produced and mixed by Nigel Godrich, with whom Beck recorded Mutations (1998) and Sea Change (2002). Recording took place from 2003 to 2006, with Beck concurrently working on 2005's Guero with the Dust Brothers. The album received positive reviews from critics and made several publications' year-end lists.
Raising Sand is a collaborative studio album by rock singer Robert Plant and bluegrass-country singer Alison Krauss. It was released in October 2007 by Rounder Records. Raising Sand won Album of the Year at the 2008 Americana Music Honors & Awards and at the 2009 Grammy Awards.
Paper Trail is the sixth studio album by American hip hop recording artist T.I., released September 30, 2008, on Grand Hustle Records and Atlantic Records. He began to write songs for the album as he awaited trial for federal weapons and possession charges. Unlike his past albums, he wrote his lyrics down on paper, which he had not done since his debut album, I'm Serious (2001).
Attack & Release is the fifth studio album by American rock duo The Black Keys. It was produced by Danger Mouse and was released on April 1, 2008. The sessions saw the band transitioning away from their "homemade" ethos to record-making; not only was it the first time that the band completed an album in a professional studio, but it was also the first time they hired an outside producer to work on a record.
In a World Like This is the eighth studio album by the Backstreet Boys. It was released on July 30, 2013, through the group's own K-BAHN record label, under license to BMG Rights Management, and distributed by RED Distribution. Although it serves as the follow-up to This Is Us (2009), it is the first album since Never Gone (2005) to feature Kevin Richardson, who left the group in 2006 and rejoined in 2012. It was also their first and only independent album since leaving their old label Jive Records in 2010. The album debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200, making the Backstreet Boys the first act since Sade to have nine US top 10 albums, and the only boy band to do so.
Morning Phase is the twelfth official studio album and twelfth overall by American singer Beck. The album was released in February 2014 by his new label, Capitol Records. According to a press release, Morning Phase is a "companion piece" to Beck's 2002 album Sea Change. Almost every credited musician who recorded parts for Sea Change returned to record for Morning Phase, with the sole exception being Sea Change producer Nigel Godrich.
Hypnotic Eye is the thirteenth and final studio album by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in the UK on July 28, 2014 and in the United States on July 29, by Reprise Records. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming the only Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album ever to top the chart. Hypnotic Eye was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. It was the Heartbreakers' final studio album before disbanding in 2017, following Petty's death in October of that year.
Colors is the thirteenth studio album by American musician Beck, released on October 13, 2017, by Fonograf Records & Capitol Records. The album was recorded between 2013 and 2017, with Beck producing alongside Greg Kurstin. The album's earliest single, "Dreams", was released in June 2015, while three more singles were released between June 2016 and September 2017. The title track was also released as a single in April 2018. The album won the Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)