Beck’s new release: a lovely downer

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Blue Moon

By Beck, from the forthcoming Morning Phase (Capitol); streaming here

We don't get 20 seconds into the new Beck song when he drops the mood a couple of shades, "I'm so tired of being alone."

Blue Moon is a lovely downer, cut from a Sea Change cloth – a sweeping, strummed daydream that will end in tears, if not an overflowing bathtub.

The track begins with a trickle of banjo, perhaps a throwback to the hipster hick of old. Across his guises and moods over the years, there is always a subtle sense of bewilderment to Beck; no matter his situation, he usually seems a little lost.

With Blue Moon he is again adrift, a "turncoat on his knees, a vagabond that no one sees." He's a great wallower, and the first taste to his first studio album since 2008 is a good one.