My #1 album of 2002 showed up in the top spot of plenty of critics’ lists as well. Beck’s Sea Change was just that, a complete change of direction for an artist better known for hip-hop beats and stream-of-consciousness lyrics.
This album, inspired by the end of a relationship, supports the theory that heartbreak is often the best muse. Beck is in full wallow mode here, drowning his sad-sack lyrics in waves of ambient strings and acoustic guitar.
Few albums have better captured loneliness and despair. But if that sounds like a miserable way to spend 50 minutes, it really isn’t. The beautiful music and production are more soothing than depressing.
Beck would return to this style for last year’s Grammy-winning Morning Phase, an album almost as good as this one. Look for it 15 years from now when I flash back to my favorite albums of 2014.
There’s a blue bird at my window
I can’t hear the songs he sings
All the jewels in heaven
They don’t look the same to me
I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind
[Chorus]
It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine
[Verse 2]
All the battlements are empty
And the moon is laying low
Yellow roses in the graveyard
Have no time to watch them grow
Now I bade a friend farewell
I can do whatever pleases me
[Chorus]
It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine
[Verse 3]
Press my face up to the window
To see how warm it is inside
See the things that I’ve been missing
Missing all this time
[Chorus]
It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine
Meet Me In Montauk 
I must confess that, for whatever reason, Beck has never grabbed hold of me, though I appreciate his talent. For my 50 minutes, give me Hard Candy all day long and twice on Sunday.
If I want to listen to an album filled with loneliness an despair, I’ll put on Watertown 🙂