A song a day: Beck - Lonesome Tears

There comes a point in every musician's life where a significant romantic relationship ends for them and they produce the break up record - in Beck's case it is Sea Change. What's interesting is that when a musician goes through an emotional trauma, a lot of their music ends up sounding like Pink Floyd and it feels like Beck has taken his emotional cues from Comfortably Numb on Lonesome Tears. Sure, there's no searing guitar solo but the downbeat sound that echoes both The Wall and Wish You Were Here sonically seems to indicate that Beck regressed to the childhood comforts of 70's prog. That being said, the lyrics are a masterpiece of emotional devastation and isolation:

How could this love
Ever turning
Never turn its eye on me

When I first heard Beck I imagined some future version of the Big Chill where ageing Gen X-er's dance around the kitchen while singing the words to Loser. I guess that song will always signify Beck to many but for me Lonesome Tears is his greatest achievement.

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