Beck has released a dramatically pop-oriented new single Up All Night, with its accompanying video out now.
The record itself, which sees the genre-hopping musician at his absolute poppiest, is on the surface at least an attempt at broad mainstream appeal, laden with catchy hooks, knowing bursts of melodic chorus, and repeated refrains clearly angling for a singalong.
The video shows a little more of Beck’s weird side. The clip stars Solene Rigot as a superhero teenager decked in a suit of armour, attempting to rescue a passed out boy, played by Pedro Attenborough, from a house party.
Along the way she dodges a flying bong and an entire American football team, treads carefully over an orgy and crowdsurfs through a corridor as she conducts the rescue mission. It’s the fourth track to appear from Beck’s new album, and has appeared in an earlier form on the soundtrack to the video game FIFA 17.
The pop-oriented new direction is shared by the other three tracks that have appeared from the record so far, named 'Dear Life', 'Wow', and 'Dreams'.
The album is released via Capitol Records on 13 October. Explaining the new direction in an interview with Rolling Stone, Beck said: “These are complex songs all trying to do two or three things at once. It's not retro and not modern. To get everything to sit together so it doesn't sound like a huge mess was quite an undertaking.”
He’s currently on tour with U2 as the support act for the Irish Band’s mammoth, and much-acclaimed, Joshua Tree tour.
