Sea Change (album)

This article is about the album by Beck. For the television series, see SeaChange.

For other uses, see Seachange.

Untitled

Sea Change is a folk rock album 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 a more sincere, simpler songwriting. On Sea Change, Beck eschews the heavy sampling of his previous albums for real instrumentation. 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.

Released with four different album covers, each version containing distinct artwork on the CD and the booklet. There are also different hidden messages 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" – 5:03 (originally titled "Nothing I Haven't Seen")
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 a Bottle" – 3:11 (Japanese version only)

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 Manning - 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

• Produced, engineered & mixed by Nigel Godrich
• Assistant engineer: Darrell Thorp
• Mastered by Bob Ludwig
• Cover photo by Autumn DeWilde
• Artwork by Jeremy Blake
• Art direction & design by Kevin Reagan & Beck
• Geffen Creative: Ekaterina Kenney

External links

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