Album Review: Colors by Beck

By Connor Faleski

In an attempt to lessen the amount of words you have to read and shorten the amount of time I have to talk about this album, I’m just going to let you know right out of the gate that Colors is bad. What Beck has done with this album, which is something rarely seen in a Beck album, is come off as horribly misguided. This album pulls from the sounds of today’s popular music, including trap beats and glossy production, in an attempt to fit in with everyone else. Where Beck usually would experiment with instrumentation and go for the bold and eccentric route to songwriting, he instead throws in popular music aesthetics and cops out when it comes to most musical decisions on this album.

With the exception of some catchy riffs, and the song ‘Fix Me’, Colors is just another incredibly safe play for Beck in a discography that has been playing it safe the past decade. And what hurts the most is looking back at his early work and seeing how brilliant he could be at a moments notice, and then listening to Colors to see that man is no more. Not even super producer Greg Kurstin could save this album. If anything, he could be a reason for this album’s faults. Kurstin’s uber clean production does not work for Beck, who excels when his music is grounded to real musicianship and real sounds. If you ever feel like listening to Colors, just look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you’re better than that, because you are.

Rating: 3/10