Beck — ‘Hyperspace 2020’ Review
By the time you’re reading this it’s technically my third time reviewing this album, but for a damn good reason. The first time was for my own blog but I was unhappy with it, but luckily Casey asked me to review my favourite album from 2019 and I chose ‘Hyperspace’. I live and breathe this album, and Casey giving me that opportunity gave me chance to completely review the album again from scratch. Last December I picked up the indie store exclusive pressing of the album for a Christmas present to myself, because I seriously do love this album. It’s in my personal top 3 albums of all time, and now it’s been released again. But rather than being just a straight up boring re-release, Beck has totally made over his masterpiece and taken it out of this world. Literally.
On August 8th the news broke on Beck’s Instagram account that ‘Hyperspace’ was being reimagined with a collaboration from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long as the project was released on August 12th, and it turned out to be so much more than I expected. We’ve heard of Beyoncé releasing a visual album and now Beck has had a stab at it, but in such a different and unique way to what Beyoncé did. On the homepage of the project’s website it reads that this is an “interstellar journey” featuring never before seen footage, and is “scored to Beck’s Hyperspace”. Reading that last part alone makes me feel like such a proud fan, and makes me think of Beck becoming a conductor of sorts to compose new music to match these images of space. It’s like the music and the album was made for this footage, but I’m pretty sure the visual album idea came after it. Each album track has an accompanying A.I video of unique and individual space missions and explorations, and also features displayed data too. Some examples of the song and footage pairings are: ‘Uneventful Days’ showing Apollo 12 footage; ‘Saw Lightning’ showing the Curiosity rover; and ‘Dark Places’ showing the Hubble Space Telescope.
Brand new themed merch has been released in conjunction with the visual album, but sadly a DVD release hasn’t been announced to be happening (yet). You can pick up a water bottle, various t-shirts with planets and data on, or even a woven blanket! But beware as I think these are only available to US fans, unless you want to pay a hefty shipping fee. Brand new and limited edition records of ‘Hyperspace 2020’ were announced too, which feature updated song mixes and two bonus tracks. There are two pressings of the album, one being a standard black vinyl with a holographic jacket and 24 page booklet and the other a picture disc vinyl, and are due to be released this December and next January, but right now you can indulge yourself in the digital version of the album which features four bonus tracks as opposed to physical editions only having two bonus songs.
The second announcement of the project mentioned unreleased tracks which led me to think there would be an abundance of songs that didn’t make the album, but sadly that wasn’t the case which made me a little sad. But once I got over myself I was actually really excited to hear these bonus songs and alternate mixes of the album tracks. Over on my own blog I have previously delved into bootleg Adam Ant recordings and compared the earlier demo versions as closely as possible to the final released versions. One of the most interesting things for me as both a consumer and creator of music myself is hearing different versions of the same song. I’m not talking about club mixes, but early versions and alternate takes. Hearing the song develop from its earliest incarnations and going through the creative process to the final version fascinates me, and often you can hear the tiniest changes that make so much difference; vocals get taken out, melodies are changed and anything can be added. It’s like listening to an artist in a creative playground, going from the swings to the slide to the roundabout, trying to figure out what they like the most and what they think sounds sounds the best. But the idea of the 2020 mixes of some previous ‘Hyperspace’ songs have me so curious. Has Beck completely made these songs sound entirely different? Or has he just made the small changes? It’s been a while since I’ve heard ‘Hyperspace’ last, as it’s such a special album to me that I wanted to hear it again under special circumstances. I’m glad that this release has given me the perfect excuse to return to it after so long.
Die Waiting: Immediately I could hear the difference in this song. It’s got such a more minimalistic arrangement to it as opposed to the initial version, and let’s all the elements of the song breathe and play out. It sounds like some instruments from the previous version have been taken out, so now we get the guitar and Beck’s vocals pushed to the forefront of the track over a basic drumbeat. There’s a few things going on in the background with keys and effects, but that just adds to the atmosphere of the track and the album. It feels like this mix is much more expansive and less cluttered than the first, where each instrument takes you from section to section and you can sit and appreciate each one individually.
See Through: This was one of my favourite songs from the original album and means a lot to me. Beck’s vocals were so catchy and the percussive beat mixed with the electronics created such an otherworldly atmosphere, which is thankfully maintained here. Something different on this new mix is that the last words on the line “I feel so ugly when you see through me” echo out a bit, which created the image in my mind of his words transforming into a bright star and shooting off through the night sky. This track maintains that more minimalist approach — no doubt inspired by Pharrell and his co-production on the original which Beck spoke highly of in an interview — which makes the song feel a lot more bare, but it works in a strange way.
Hyperspace: One of the biggest features of the title track on the original version was the constant heavy drumbeat which went all through the song, and here that’s been changed to be a lot less prominent. The new mix of this track is so different to the initial one, and has so many things added to it and changed to the point it feels like an entirely new song. There’s new vocals, new electronics and I think even some guitar added to the intro of the song which starts off a lot different to the previous version. I was expecting that drumbeat to begin immediately but something more atmospheric and melodic began the song before the beat came in, then faded away with new backing vocals swirling around it.
Star: Other reviews of this song compared it to Prince, and to be honest, I can see where they’re coming from. For some reason I can hear 1995 Prince — or should I say O(+> — in the song, I don’t know why but I can hear this song fitting perfectly into ‘The Gold Experience’. This mix follows the same trend of the previous mixes in transforming it into a much more minimalistic arrangement in comparison to the original, and I also hear a few additional vocals in this one. My favourite moment in the entire track is the tiny little “woo” that Beck gives out toward the end of a verse. At the start Beck’s vocals are accompanied by just the thick bassline before all the other instruments slowly come in one by one, then a distorted guitar starts to erupt and wail throughout just as the original does.
Dark Places — Soundscape: The first of the unreleased songs is short but sweet, and is an entirely different composition to the original studio version. It’s littered with Beck’s vocals, which sound like they’re filtered backing vocals from the original track, and it’s not until at about halfway through the song that any resemblance to the original is heard. The track is definitely a soundscape in the essence that it feels like it has layers that just loosely build and build upon each other before the main subject, the melody from ‘Dark Places’, gives you a sense of direction. It also sounds like an ambient interlude that could easily be used in the background of a digital project, or as the segue between two other songs. It does make me wonder if this was the original state of ‘Dark Places’ before it became the song it was eventually released as.
I Am The Cosmos (42420): Beck shared a video with us on social media a few months back, where he was sat on a balcony under a blue sky just him playing and singing. It’s honestly no word of a lie that literally only a few weeks ago the video came to my mind again and I was going to go find it, because I really loved the recording and wished that he released it to more than just his YouTube. I understand that song covers need some degree of clearance and permission so that may have got between him doing so, as this is a cover of a Chris Bell song from his only studio album. But I’m so glad that the song is finally here, as I remember seeing the original video and being in awe and finding the song so beautiful. Beck’s vocals are emotional and strong, his guitar playing twangy and snappy. It’s a beautiful and passionate rendition that I could listen to all day.
Uneventful Days — St. Vincent Remix: Earlier this year both of these artist joined forces to perform with Nirvana at their benefit show, and a few months later this remix was first unveiled. I adore both of these musicians and their music, I’ve seen St. Vincent live and will be seeing Beck next year, and my ultimate dream is for Beck, St. Vincent, Jack White and Dave Grohl to form a supergroup and release an album together. The world is not ready for that album but I need it. I was excited to see how St. Vincent reimagined ‘Uneventful Days’ as this is her remix of Beck’s song, and it was going to be released as a 7” single for Record Store Day before it was cancelled this year. It was released digitally as a single however, and now officially finds itself as a part of the ‘Hyperspace’ era.
As much as I love, adore and am inspired by these two musicians, this remix didn’t work for me the first time I heard it. That’s just my personal opinion. I love the instrumental and how St. Vincent has basically recorded the entire song from scratch and given it her own twist that’s full of guitar, synths and percussion. But the problem for me lied in the vocals. Beck’s vocals are absolutely fine but in comparison to the original, they’re a little too slowed down. They seem unnatural in the mix, and the fact they’re slower doesn’t fit with the fast paced instrumental. If he recorded a new take of his vocals for the song all over again then I think I would have liked it a lot more and it would have worked better. But the chorus of this remix it has a track of Beck’s vocals which are deeply buried in the original mix, so I was very happy that St. Vincent took those and pushed them to the forefront. And in all honesty, I liked the remix a lot more listening to it this time than the first. I still stand by what I said about the vocals sounding unnatural to me, but there’s no denying St. Vincent done a brilliant job in completely reloading this track. It sounds exactly like her, and with the presence of Beck it makes me want them to collaborate even more. Let’s hope that the future is full of more music from them both together.
Saw Lightning — Freestyle: Closing off the album is a song I never thought would get a digital audio release, but after some digging I found out that this was already released on the deluxe edition of the original album. The second track and first single of ‘Hyperspace’ was a song called ‘Saw Lightning’, and it may have stood out like a sore thumb in context of how the rest of the album sounded, but it’s no denying the song is such a feel good anthem and so much fun which is probably due to Pharell’s presence on the song. But on his YouTube Beck released a very stripped down version of ‘Saw Lightning’ that throws back to his ‘One Foot In The Grave’ song. It’s just him alone in an empty room singing, playing his harmonica and tapping his feet in place of the drums. It’s nowhere near as funky as the studio version, but to hear Beck by himself playing the song in the most stripped back form was so refreshing to see. I’m so glad that version has made its way to streaming services at last. I’m gunna be playing this lot more now there is an easier and convenient way to listen to it.
Final Thoughts
If I had to describe the new songs of this album in a single word, I would say “minimalistic”. It’s so refreshing to hear more stripped down versions of songs from an album that runs deep inside of me. I’m not saying these are better or worse than their original counterparts, that’s for you to decide, but it definitely adds more variety and gives you a choice of which way you want to hear these songs. I love that they let so many elements of the mix breathe, and it seems like Beck has been so inspired by Pharrell that he went away and challenged himself to make these songs even more minimalistic and bare than they already were. He did such a great and captivating job, while also managing to keep the original atmosphere of all the tracks.
I’m thankful for the bonus tracks too, even if they aren’t any full outtakes from the sessions. ‘Saw Lightning’ goes perfectly with the ‘I Am The Cosmos’ cover in the sense that Beck strips these songs down even more and still manages to convey such strong senses emotion and rhythm with only two or three instruments; I’m happy that the St. Vincent remix wasn’t just a throwaway track and has been added to the “canon” of the era, and I enjoyed it and clicked with it a lot more this time around; and finally, the ‘Soundscape’ track acts like a tease and just makes me wonder what it would be like for Beck to channel his inner Brian Eno and release a full electronic ambiance album. This release shows that when you think an album or a song is done, you can take it in so many different musical directions by adding to or taking away from the “final” product. You can reduce it to it bare bones or get one of your peers to put their unique spin on it; you can take it outside and sing it to the birds under a blue sky, or send it beyond our planet and literally out to space.
Read my other Beck album reviews: Modern Guilt / Guero / Midnite Vultures
