Some songs don’t ask for your attention. They drift into the room, settle beside you, and wait. Beck‘s latest feels like that. After years without a new studio album, he’s opening the door to a familiar sound, but one that’s grown older, wiser, and more textured.
Beck has announced his new album, Ride Lonesome, arriving September 18 via Capitol Records. It marks his first studio album since 2019’s Hyperspace, following January’s Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime, a collection of rarities, deep cuts and covers.
Produced by Beck and mixed by Nigel Godrich, the album also includes the previously released title track, Ride Lonesome.
Now, Beck has shared another preview with the haunting new single In The Night, accompanied by a video directed by Mikai Karl, produced by Ryan Smale and starring Denis Lavant.
Reflecting on the making of the album, Beck said the project reunited him with the musicians who helped define some of the most beloved records of his career.
“My new album Ride Lonesome is coming out this fall. The musicians from my original touring and recording band that I recorded Sea Change, Morning Phase and Mutations with – Smokey Hormel, Joey Waronker, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., and Jason Falkner – reconvened with me at my favorite studio (Room B at United Studios in Hollywood).”
The reunion also brought Beck back together with longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich, more than a decade after they created Morning Phase.
“This time it felt like the playing and the chemistry had evolved and deepened – a sound that’s come together over the decades of working together.”
He said returning to those familiar surroundings wasn’t about recreating the past.
“While we were revisiting a musical and physical place, it also felt like we were finding new sounds and emotional textures along the way.”
The new material draws inspiration from the intimate, acoustic approach of Morning Phase and the emotional depth of Sea Change, while allowing those longtime musical relationships to continue evolving.
The album arrives just as Beck begins his North American Lonesome Ride tour, which opens September 16 in Vancouver before making stops across the U.S. and Canada through the end of October.
Beck’s Lonesome Ride Tour Dates
September
16 – Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
18 – Woodinville, WA – Chateau Ste. Michelle
19 – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
22 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
23 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
25 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
26 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
October
1 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
3 – Omaha, NE – Steelhouse Omaha
4 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
6 – Milwaukee, WI – Landmark Credit Union Live
7 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
9 – Chicago, IL – The Auditorium
12 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
14 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
15 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
17 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
18 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
22 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
23 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
25 – Washington, DC – The Anthem
27 – Durham, NC – Durham Performing Arts Center
28 – Asheville, NC – Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
30 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
31 – Nashville, TN – The Truth
Since releasing Hyperspace, Beck has also hinted at an orchestral album following performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and joined Arooj Aftab for a cover of Jeff Buckley’s Lilac Wine on the HELP(2) charity album supporting War Child.
If In The Night is any indication of what’s ahead, do you think Ride Lonesome could become Beck’s most emotionally resonant album since Sea Change?
