Beck – ‘Ride Lonesome’ review: a drop-dead gorgeous meditation on heartache and solitude

Last spring, Beck played two massive orchestral shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The setlist leaned heavily on his 2002 album ‘Sea Change’, a melancholic masterpiece adorned with gorgeous orchestral arrangements. Until these shows, the chameleonic indie-pop star had never performed the album with all the trimmings and, as he explained to the audience on the first night, he was thrilled at the opportunity to realise its songs with an 85-strong team of musicians. READ MORE: NME 100 At The Festivals: some of our favourite rising acts take us backstage on their 2026 festival season At the time, he said that the concerts had inspired him to work in the studio with an orchestra – though stopped short of saying he was recording an album. Instead, in typically gnomic fashion, Beck described the endeavour as an “undisclosed, unnamed project”. 18 months later, here is the distinctly album-shaped ‘Ride Lonesome’, a 12-track collection of aching chamber pop tunes in the vein of ‘Sea Change’ and its 2014 spiritual sequel ‘Morning Phase’. The result is a drop-dead gorgeous meditation on heartache and solitude, with the title track – and lead single – setting the tone for a suite of songs tha...