Beck to life...

It's been brooding for a while this one, but finally Beck announces details of his imminent tenth album, Modern Guilt.

This is what we already knew:

- Produced by Danger Mouse
- Features Cat Power on at least one track
- 10 songs, just over 30 minutes long in total
- Released in the UK on XL

We now know what the album cover will look like:



It's not dull! It's 'muted' or 'classic' or 'understated'. Certainly it's his least colourful or inventive cover since before Mellow Gold.

The tracklisting is here:

01 Orphans
02 Gamma Ray
03 Chemtrails
04 Modern Guilt
05 Youthless
06 Walls (feat. Cat Power)
07 Replica
08 Soul of a Man
09 Profanity Prayers
10 Volcano

So, just the one Cat Power duet. You can't judge anything by song titles, but if you could I say that 'Gamma Ray' is a bit electro, 'Modern Guilt' has lots of guitar on it, 'Walls' and 'Soul Of A Man' are Sea Change-esque slowies and 'Volcano' is 'explosive'. Knowing Beck that's way off and the whole thing will probably take in polka, swing, latin funk, electroclash and the Indonesian nose flute. The album is out in the UK on 7 July. Whoo and indeed hoo.

EDIT: Here's a clip of Beck performing the title track in the US of A. Please note the hair and the glasses. Also note how Beck never seems to age, this is basically what he looked like circa 'Loser' about fifty years ago. I'm at work so can't listen to the song, it might be rubbish, but I doubt it somehow. Thanks to Jake for the heads up.