When the Canadian wildfires were forcing many of us to rally our best indoorsy selves, it turned out Beck, who had not dropped an album since Hyperspace, in 2019, gave us the apropos soundtrack for this climate-change summer. Summer songs are usually danceable bangers—think Outkast’s “Hey Ya!,” from the aughts—but just in time for the A.Q.I. shut-in was Beck’s mournful, passionate, and desperate “Thinking About You.” It is a gem about love lost, and it sounds like it’s always been here, from an artist that sounds like right now, or right anon.
Back in the 90s, in “Static,” Beck had already told us, “It’s a perfect day to lock yourself inside.” That was 1998, many climate cycles and life crises ago. And there was that voice, one that rapped, screamed, howled, and brooded for us, one that stayed current with studio wizardry while stretching way back to Jobim, Hank Williams, Skip James, and even a sample of Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony,” itself a fragment. In March—did we really reach this milestone?—it was 30 years since Beck, in the self-laceration anthem “Loser,” announced, “I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me?” Accolades and Grammys followed.
