This is the 14th studio LP from Los Angeles, California musician, singer/songwriter & producer Beck. Releasing his full-length studio debut Golden Feelings & Stereopathetic Soulmanure independently until signing to DGC Records for his most celebrated opus Mellow Gold preceding 1 Foot in the Grave. Odelay, Mutations, Midnite Vultures, the Geffen Records-backed Sea Change, his Interscope Records debut Guero, The Information & the Danger Mouse-produced Modern Guilt were all equally praised although his ongoing Capitol Records tenure has been hit or miss. Coming off Morning Phase & Colors, the Fonograf Records founder’s going to ハイパースペース amid his divorce from Marissa Ribisi.
“Hyperlife” produced by Pharrell was a mediocre ambient pop, alt-pop, chillwave, alternative R&B, space ambient & chillsynth intro singing about heartbreak & loneliness whereas “Uneventful Days” blends synthpop, electropop, alt-pop & trap to delve more into separation topically. “Saw Lightning” blends alternative dance, country rap, breakbeat & electroclash for a tiring lead single discussing his divorce again leading into “Die Waiting” takes a folkier approach using heavy bass singing about waiting for his ex-wife until the very end.
We get some heavy synthesizers throughout “Chemical” aside from Brent Paschke playing guitar so Beck can compare to that of an addictive substance just before “See Through” goes for a tropical direction instrumentally courtesy of Greg Kurstin to kick off the 2nd half, confessing to feeling ugly whenever Marissa looks past his bullshit. The title track runs it back with Skateboard P for a more fleshed out version of the intro while the self-produced “Stratosphere” melancholically remembers a friend of his who died in 2000 of a heroin overdose.
“Dark Place” winds down the last few moments of ハイパースペース with Pharrell throwing it back to the Mellow Gold days with this synthpop, psychedelic pop, neo-psychedelia & dream pop single singing about being unable to get Marissa off his mind in addition to coping with the loneliness of her leaving him while “Star” takes inspiration from both D’Angelo & the late Prince portraying a 2-faced psycho. “Everlasting Nothing” sends off the album with this average psychedelic pop, art pop, neo-psychedelia, dream pop, psychedelic folk & synthpop outro singing to his younger self.
Pharrell’s one of my top 5 producers of all-time & that includes everything he’s done with Chad Hugo as 1/2 of my favorite production duo The Neptunes, so hearing that he was going to produce more than 1/2 of ハイパースペース gave me hope of it potentially becoming the best thing Beck’s done since the Capitol deal came about earlier this decade & that unfortunately isn’t the case. Maybe the most mediocre he’s ever made mostly as a result of the synthpop, alt-pop, dream pop, neo-psychedelia, electropop, vapor, ambient pop, alt-pop, chillwave, alternative R&B, space ambient, chillsynth, synthpop, electropop, trap, alternative dance, country rap, breakbeat, electroclash, psychedelic pop, neo-psychedelia, art pop & psychedelic folk production lacks the intricacies of his earlier output than the divorce themes.
Score: 2.5/5
