what is modern guilt? what makes it modern? where does it come from? is it the pressure to do something meaningful? is it the guilt an artist feels when they realize that their contemporaries are making “political” statements and they haven’t made theirs yet? beck doesn’t really do much to answer these questions on modern guilt, but he does have a few hints. much of the album centres on themes of fear (“chemtrails”), defying convention (“walls”), and a lack of belonging (“orphans,” “modern guilt”), but just as he’s decrying the stranglehold that conventions have on modern society, he’s intentionally throwing-back to the 60s, and therefore contradicting himself in the process. while the first few tracks are a good bunch– although inconsistent– it isn’t until the title track that you actually realize that you’re hearing a collaboration between danger mouse and beck. “modern guilt” kicks and bumps along, but does so in a similar vein to another danger mouse collab– the black keys’ “strange times.” this similarity raises another question: is beck really addressing what’s “modern”? given the highway 61 revisited reference of the album cover, the retro psych/garage-rock atmosphere throughout, and his choosing to work with someone whose body of work consists of mixing old and new styles, beck’s second attempt at being taken seriously (no matter how earnest he might be) seems muddled and confused when he makes an album as contradictory as this one.
Filed under: Album Review , 2008, beck, danger mouse, highway 61 revisited, modern guilt
