Sea Change

Sea Change
Studio album by Beck
Released	September 24, 2002
Recorded	Spring–Summer 2002
Genre	Alternative rock, folk rock
Length	52:24
Label	Geffen Records
Producer	Nigel Godrich
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Austin Chronicle 2002 The Guardian 2002 Pitchfork Media (6.9/10) 2002 PopMatters (positive) 2002 Robert Christgau (B) link Rolling Stone 2002 Slant Magazine link Stylus Magazine (B+) 2003 Village Voice (mixed) 2002
Beck chronology
Midnite Vultures (1999) Sea Change (2002) Guero (2005)

Sea Change is an alternative rock album with folk rock influences by Beck and was released in September 2002. Inspired by the dissolution of a relationship, Sea Change received glowing reviews upon its release and is considered a major highlight in Beck's canon of released works.

Details

Sea Change features ornate string arrangements and soft acoustic guitar finger-picking. Much of Beck's trademark recondite, ironic lyrics are replaced by more sincere, simpler lyrical content. On Sea Change, Beck eschews the heavy sampling of his previous albums for real, live instrumentation. In interviews, Beck cited the breakup with his longtime girlfriend as the major influence on the album. With its lovelorn lyrics, critics have compared Sea Change to Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and the works of Nick Drake. "Paper Tiger" draws inspiration from Serge Gainsbourg, in particular the groundbreaking 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson. Sea Change peaked at #8 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and was eventually certified gold in March 2005. In the UK charts, it peaked at #20. In 2002, Sea Change was the only album that received the magazine's highest, five-star rating from Rolling Stone magazine. In 2003, the album was ranked number 440 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Sea Change was released with four different album covers, each version containing distinct artwork on the CD and the booklet. There are also different hidden messages (lyrical snippets) written under each version's CD tray.

Track listing

All songs written by Beck Hansen.

1. "The Golden Age" – 4:35
2. "Paper Tiger" – 4:36
3. "Guess I'm Doing Fine" – 4:49
4. "Lonesome Tears" – 5:38
5. "Lost Cause" – 3:47
6. "End of the Day" (originally titled "Nothing I Haven't Seen") – 5:03
7. "It's All in Your Mind" – 3:06
8. "Round the Bend" – 5:15
9. "Already Dead" – 2:59
10. "Sunday Sun" – 4:45
11. "Little One" – 4:27
12. "Side of the Road" – 3:23
13. "Ship in the Bottle" (Japanese version only) - 3:12

Samples

Personnel

Performers

• Beck Hansen – vocals, acoustic guitar, background vocals, electric guitar, percussion, synth, glockenspiel, banjo, harmonica, keyboards, piano, string arrangement, wurlitzer
• Justin Meldal-Johnsen – electric bass, upright bass, percussion, background vocals, glockenspiel, electric guitar, piano
• Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – clavinet, synth, background vocals, percussion, piano, wurlitzer, banjo, indian banjo, glockenspiel, harmonium
• Smokey Hormel – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, acoustic slide guitar, percussion, background vocals, bamboo saxophone, megamouth, piano, tape recorder
• Joey Waronker – drums, percussion, background vocals, beatbox drums
• James Gadson – drums
• Jason Falkner – electric guitar, background vocals, percussion
• David Campbell – string arrangement, conducting
• Nigel Godrich – keyboards, percussion, string treatment, synth
• Suzie Katayama – cello

Other

• Nigel Godrich – production, engineering, mixing
• Darrell Thorp – assistant engineering
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• Autumn de Wilde – cover photo
• Jeremy Blake – artwork
• Kevin Reagan, Beck – art direction, design
• Ekaterina Kenney – Geffen Creative

External links

• Sea Change at MusicBrainz
• Sea Change at MusicBrainz (Japanese edition)