Another year, another horrible Beck album

Do you remember when Beck was one of the most important musicians alive? After Mellow Gold, Odelay, Mutations, and Sea Change, I thought he could do anything. Rap, country, punk, folk: anything he wanted to do, he could and did on those albums.

He capped this run off with Sea Change, one of the most unexpected surprises any major label musician has ever released. A heartfelt and perfectly paced update on Dylan's Blood On The Tracks, it remains one of my favorite records of this decade. But after that, he's had a hard time sounding like he was interested in making music. Whereas his new brooding, drained vocal style worked great on Sea Change, it has ruined his ability to make the whiteboy rap/funk that made him famous in the first place.

Now that working with Nigel Goodrich (The Information) and the Dust Brothers (Guero) have failed to help him recapture old magic, he brought Danger Mouse on board. Unfortunately, no produced can make him sounded interested again. Even the spy-theme funk rhythm on "Gamma Ray" makes me wish it was Cee-Lo on the mic instead of Beck.

I don't know what it will take to revitilize Beck - at 38 years old, he isn't nearly as old as he sounds (Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, both past 60, has more spunk and life). So forget Modern Guilt: pull out Mellow Gold and Odelay and remember the golden age of Beck.