I agree that Beck seems like he's in a holding pattern now (the latest one sounds like bad Nick Drake).
But to many ears the recent Beck was quite a sonic shock. You have to remember that the great majority of listeners today have never heard *of* Nick Drake, much less heard his music.
I don't think it was a shock to anyone who's familiar with Beck. After all, "sea change" followed soundalikes "mutations" and "one foot in the grave", which arguably form a trilogy of introspective, predominantly acoustic records that crib from primitive blues and folk of the Cohen/Drake variety. The real surprise was that it was that "Sea Change" was nowhere near as good as those two records, which remain both the strongest and the most honest of his discography. My beef with post-fame Beck is that he never has the balls to combine his two split personalities on one record. His entire post-"loser" career has been a juggling act, keeping the serious, folksy moper seperate from the novelty party guy. Hence, records like "midnight vultures" are nothing but schlocky silliness, and "mutations" and "sea change" are the serious, mopey ones. Why doesn't he have the balls to put both on one record? andrew