Pochette de l’album « Ride Lonesome » — Beck / Iliad Records-Capitol
Seven years after ‘Hyperspace,’ Beck releases his fifteenth studio album, ‘Ride Lonesome,’ this Friday, September 18, produced with Nigel Godrich. It is a pointed return to the hushed, cinematic songwriting that defined his most cherished work, cut with the musicians who have followed him since ‘Sea Change’ and ‘Morning Phase.’
Seven years of silence, finally broken
Beck had not put out a studio album since 2019’s ‘Hyperspace’ — the longest gap of a career that began in the mid-1990s with the breakout hit ‘Loser’ and has zigzagged ever since, from lo-fi folk to plastic funk, from glossy studio pop to bare-boned blues. Rather than kick the door down, he returns with a record built on restraint, first announced back in July.
For the occasion, Beck called back the inner circle behind his most loved albums. Smokey Hormel, Joey Waronker, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Jason Falkner all played on ‘Mutations’ (1998), ‘Sea Change’ (2002) or the Grammy-winning ‘Morning Phase’ (2014). The message is clear: these are songs written close to the bone, not attention-grabbing experiments.
Nigel Godrich at the desk
The album was tracked at United Studios in Hollywood and mixed by Nigel Godrich, Radiohead’s longtime collaborator and a familiar hand on Beck’s most melancholy work. The palette is acoustic and unhurried — dry guitars, string arrangements, pedal steel and warm drums — a world away from the polished pop of his last two efforts. This is headphones music, made for late nights rather than festival fields, and it plays like a deliberate rebuke to the maximalism of much of today’s pop.
Three songs had already mapped the way back. The title track, ‘Ride Lonesome,’ arrived in April, followed in June by a duet version with country singer Sierra Ferrell. ‘In the Night’ came in July with a video starring French actor Denis Lavant, directed by Mikai Karl. ‘Disappearing Act,’ unveiled in August, confirmed the direction: stacked harmonies, generous reverb and lyrics that lean into the unknown.
Twelve songs built for close listening
‘Ride Lonesome’ gathers twelve tracks. The overall feel is chamber folk, kin to Beck’s great dusk-lit albums, where the voice sits plainly atop careful arrangements. Songs like ‘Run Away,’ ‘Bleed,’ ‘Slow Canyon’ and ‘Beyond the Light’ extend that mood of an interior road movie.
- ‘Ride Lonesome’ — the title track and template for the album, also available as a duet with Sierra Ferrell
- ‘In the Night’ — a folk-rock hymn carried by a string arrangement and a Mikai Karl video
- ‘Disappearing Act’ — the third single, all acoustic guitars and hazy harmonies
The early singles drew a warm critical response, with many hearing a welcome return for listeners the pop turn of his recent albums had left behind. The real test is the full run of twelve songs, and whether the record holds across its length.
A North American tour to follow
The release comes with a tour of the United States and Canada across September and October 2026 — a chance to bring these stripped-back songs to the stage in more intimate settings than the big electric shows of recent years. On record, Beck is a restless shape-shifter; on this tour, the challenge will be to hold a room with quiet.
‘Ride Lonesome’ joins a small run of quiet comebacks. Days apart, Japanese pop godfather Haruomi Hosono also released his first album in seven years, as if, against releases engineered for the algorithm, certain veterans would rather relearn how to speak softly. Friday will tell whether Beck does it better than anyone.
