“Some days I go dark places on my own / Some days I go dark places in my soul,” Beck affectingly sings on the latter. The gorgeous, cosmic ‘Stratosphere’ – complete with Chris Martin backing vocals – is easily the album’s standout, closely followed by the dreamy ‘Dark Places’, where Beck’s emotive, melancholic songwriting brings some welcome substance to the airiness on a thoughtful track exploring insularity and loneliness. Beck takes on a new cosmic identity with aplomb. Yet there’s a happier and much more successful balance between Beck and Pharrell’s talents by the time the gloriously hazy album’s title track kicks in. Like the album’s cover, which sees Beck shielding from the light, it feels like he’s anxious to move forwards. This makes for an uneven cohesion on a first half that, at times, struggles to find its way. A thunderous barn-stomp, ‘Saw Lightening’ sits between the two sets of songs and feels like an ‘Odelay’-style crowd pleaser for fans of Beck’s older works. The spaciousness is pushed even further on the trippy ‘Chemical’ and under-the-sea sounding ‘See Through’ as Beck swims leisurely though this bright, but forgettable, ballad. Both are an effective bridge between the worlds of ‘Colors’ and ‘Hyperspace’ – yet, while spacious in sound, they’re light on melody and lacking in Beck’s trademarks hooks. The synth-led ‘Uneventful Days’ and ‘Die Waiting’ could easily soundtrack Stranger Things. Here, he pushes that unpredictability to its very limit – and sometimes, the songs break. Even fans of his Grammy Award-winning ‘Colors’, which saw Beck venture further into the mainstream with infectious songs like ‘Dear Life’, may find the experimentalism here too stark – especially on the album’s first half.īut Beck is the master of unpredictability and has, since his debut, experimented with all manner of styles, including lo-fi, rock, funk, pop and folk. The simplicity is marked, and fans of Beck’s fuller, more melancholic folk-rock style (exemplified by albums such as the stunning, career-defining ‘Morning Phase’) might struggle with the minimalistic leap that ‘Hyperspace’ represents. On production I’m a bit of a maximalist… I’ve really tried to reform myself to let it become more simple.” “I really tried to be less ambitious on the production on these songs, like to let them be simple and let them breathe,” Beck told NME. ‘Hyperlife’, the album’s brief but airy opener, sets the tone for the partnership as Pharrell’s minimalist production allows Beck’s fuller vocals to soar over a set of synths that sounds like something straight out of Space Odyssey. Elsewhere, the record sees guest appearances from Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Sky Ferreira, Paul Epworth and Greg Kurstin on what is Beck’s most collaborative work for years. A full collaboration ensued and ‘Hyperspace’, Beck’s 14 th album, was born. record from there, the two began sharing songs and, soon, a body of work emerged. Speaking to NME recently, Beck revealed that Pharrell asked him to initially work on the new N.E.R.D. In short, Spirals in Hyperspace has its moments and is a satisfying album in itself, but if you look at the group's long discography, it shows a certain level of fatigue.Beck and Pharrell first discussed the idea of working together in 1999, but it’s taken almost 20 years to finally bring the two together. "Toka Tola" and the title track stand out as particularly potent cuts, but Ozric Tentacles' back catalog is filled with similar tunes. The other pieces fall in the "lukewarm" category, occasionally veering toward clichéd ambient trance. "Oakum" and "Zoemetra" come close, though, both in terms of extra personnel and genuine drive - the latter in particular features some great light-speed drumming and a typical Middle Eastern melody. It's also an exception: the track features Schoo on real drums, Seaweed, Egan, and Brandi Wynne on glide bass - the closest to a group effort you'll witness on this album. In fact, anyone would refute all of the above upon listening to the hard-driving opener, "Chewier": fast-paced and exciting, it sounds like something out of Erpland but with a harder, Magna Carta-trademarked edge. Still, Spirals in Hyperspace is a good late-vintage Ozric opus. The sleek production doesn't hide a high level of predictability and a certain coldness in the execution. Old travelers like Seaweed, John Egan, Schoo, and even Steve Hillage lend a hand on two or three cuts each, but the group has definitely moved from a fierce live unit to a more clinical studio project - and it can be heard on this album. Spirals in Hyperspace completes the movement initiated since Ozric Tentacles' comeback: the group is now the sole creature of Ed Wynne, who handles guitar, keyboards, and beat programming.
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