{"id":897212,"date":"2026-09-19T01:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897212\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T01:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:56:17","slug":"new-album-reviews-of-beck-and-robert-baxter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897212\/","title":{"rendered":"New album reviews of Beck and Robert Baxter"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 19, 2026 \u2014 5:30am<\/p>\n

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\"Beck\u2019sBeck\u2019s Ride Lonesome: a case of diminishing returns.<\/p>\n

Beck, Ride Lonesome<\/p>\n

\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

Beck has always been at his best when taking sharp turns, veering from warped lo-fi to hip-hop-influenced indie rock to slinky funk. So when the US singer-songwriter released 2002\u2019s Sea Change, a sincere song cycle of genuine heartbreak, it was a revelation from a guy who had previously been pretty wry.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s returned to that mode since then, on 2014\u2019s less convincing Morning Phase, and now he\u2019s gone there again on his first album in seven years. And, sadly, it\u2019s a case of diminishing returns.<\/p>\n

The title track is a pale facsimile of 2002\u2019s The Golden Age, from the reverb-soaked melancholia to the high-plains drifter lyrics. The low-hanging strings of In the Night repeat his past Nick Drake obsessions, while It Ends Right Here, with sugar-sweet strumming and give-me-a-hug lines such as \u201cAll these people that you knew, all these cities you walk through, all this time it took to find you\u201d could be from the Coldplay songbook.<\/p>\n

\"Beck,Beck, pictured with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in May, retreads old ground on his new album.Daniel Boud<\/p>\n

He\u2019s assembled the same band from back in the day and worked with a similar musical template, but too many of the songs remain stagnant, replicating the sonics but lacking the soul.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going, but it feels like I\u2019ve been here before,\u201d Beck sings on Bleed. He sure has \u2013 and he\u2019s done it better. Barry Divola<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert Baxter\u2019s PARTYANIMAL: the sweatiest nightclub you can imagine.<\/p>\n

Robert Baxter, PARTYANIMAL<\/p>\n

\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

From the opening seconds of Robert Baxter\u2019s new EP, you\u2019re transported into the sweatiest, most exclusive nightclub you can imagine. Thumping beats are the order of the day, and if you\u2019re a lover of basslines, you\u2019ll be in heaven (one that is downright debaucherous). I <3 Girls is a celebration of the trans girls and queer girls in Robert\u2019s life and is begging to be played at countless pre-drinks. In Nameless, they embracing anonymity while partying on the other side of the globe, a canonical event for many Australian 20-somethings.<\/p>\n

It would be easy to write off PARTYANIMAL as the latest in a long line of Australian pop projects that has wholeheartedly embraced clubbier sounds. However, at the heart of the EP lies a sincerity, with their lyricism revealing a more vulnerable side. BRB is a response to a music industry figure trying to undermine them, while closer Sky City pays tribute to the community they\u2019ve built around themself, far from their origins growing up in rural Victorian town Shepparton.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

PARTYANIMAL is the type of project begging to be played at Berghain. It\u2019s best listened to with the lights off and well after a typical bedtime has passed. Ben Madden<\/p>\n

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\"BarryBarry Divola<\/a> is a journalist and author who specialises in music, popular culture, the arts, podcasts and travel.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 19, 2026 \u2014 5:30am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-897212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}