Jon Dolan
View all posts by Jon Dolan September 18, 2026 Add us as a Google Preferred Source
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Mikai Karl* Beck’s first album in seven years is a sublime return to the somber folk-rock of career highpoints like 2002’s Sea Change and 2014’s Morning Phase. “You’ve got to cry a river,” he offers against the stately drift of the album opening title track, “Ride Lonesome.” Here the river of tears leads to an ocean of mellow gold. With its fragile acoustic melodies, desolate lyrics, and spare, subtle studio accompaniment, Ride Lonesome is like Nick Drake’s mumble-folk masterpiece Bryter Layter as the work of a lovelorn Laurel Canyon soft-rock poet. It’s been quite a while since Beck was associated with jokey post-modern irony but he’s rarely sounded this committed to deploying gorgeous melodies as a balm against his existential hangdog blues.
