Hyperspace
Beck’s 14th full-length album takes its name from a special feature found in the classic 1979 video game Asteroids. “I remember this point where you’re gonna get killed in the game,” he tells Apple Music, “and \[hitting\] this button would make you disappear and reappear somewhere safe. Just in general, I think we could all use that button.” *Hyperspace* finds the pioneering singer-songwriter joining with Pharrell Williams (who co-wrote and co-produced seven of its 11 tracks) for a set of surrealist synth-pop that feels worlds away from anywhere, let alone the directness of 2017’s *Colors*. Where that record felt like it might burst at the seams, Beck luxuriates in negative space and ambiguity here. “Stratosphere”—which features well-hidden backup vocals from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin—sounds like it was recorded at that exact altitude, its synths coming and going like condensation on glass. The equally haunting “Uneventful Days” feels like a message from the in-between. “I couldn’t quite place what it was,” he says of the song. “It’s like those moments in the aftermath of a period of time. Like a new job in a new town. You’re standing in an empty apartment, staring out the window at a palm tree.”
On his 14th album, Beck roams across a pleasant, gently psychedelic landscape looking for something new.
It’s been a strange later-career journey for the guy who found fame with goof-offs like “Loser” and “Where It’s At.”
Beck takes on a new cosmic identity with aplomb, roping in Pharrell to achieve pop minimalism that proves there's no sound he can't excel at
A worthy addition to this musical chameleon’s expansive back catalogue
'Hyperspace' feels like dispatches from a neon-synth future slightly faded by the yawning melancholy of Beck’s last great…
Avant-rocker Beck teams up with Pharrell Williams for a revelatory inner-space journey on his new album, Hyperspace.
Beck has reined in his maximalist approach, not necessarily for the better, while Lady Antebellum are peddling the same old themes
After a couple of decades of exploratory mutations, Beck has entered the crowd-pleasing phase of his career. His fantastic live shows are al...
Beck Hansen is one of popular music's great documentarians. The talented multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and production wizard pulls from his vast toolbox at will, reflecting the music landscape surrounding him with Tarantino-like precision and intrigu
The 14th album from Beck, and first since 2017's double-Grammy-winning 'Colors', shows the LA-born artist on top experimental form. Its
The kindest reading of Beck's Hyperspace would respect his willingness to adapt on his 14th album which features production from Pharrell.
Most of the album’s songs blend into each other so nebulously that they become collectively anonymous.
Hyperspace, Beck's 14th album, is largely a collaboration between Beck and Pharrell Williams.
Leslie Chu reviews Hyperspace by Beck. The full-length was produced by Pharrell, and features contributions from Sky Ferreira, Cole M.G.N. and more
In what would have seemed a dream teaming early last decade, Pharrell Williams helped produce Beck’s occasionally lovely but unambitious 14th album