Credit: Press
Sun 1 March 2026 11:00, UK
Everywhere you look in today’s always switched-on world, people are discussing the perils of technology.
In a world where many of us are struggling to separate AI from reality, it makes complete sense. How many times have you come across some variation of it against your will, on social media or unexpectedly through any other form of media consumption in the past few weeks? The numbers are high, which leads us to one scary revelation: tech has got to a point where it’s literally inescapable.
When Beck was younger, he used to play a video game called Defender. In it, the player could escape danger by pressing ‘Hyperspace’, which would immediately transport them somewhere else. Years later, Beck would name his album after the same concept of fleeing a disastrous situation, a compelling and relatable message in a world riddled with tech everywhere you turn.
Explaining the concept in a later interview with Q, Beck said that it was something he was aware of at the time – that most people resonated with this idea that you could escape reality at the click of a button, or teleport yourself somewhere else whenever you needed a break from whatever it was that was in front of you at any given moment.
“I think this is a desire for many of us right now,” he said, adding that people were always “wishing” there was some kind of quick fix or button to “leave the planet” and “escape all of the pain”. The title track on his 2019 record, ‘Hyperspace’, specifically tackles the ways that the digital age makes us more “hungry” for real things like human connection and basic emotions.
The lyrics address this by discussing wanting to feel “more and more” and how, despite the positive aspects of modern technology, it ultimately leaves you feeling empty and unable to find a remedy for the abyss that it leaves behind. As Beck explained to The Independent, the more you “consume” its chaos, the more you hunger for “human contact”. He went on, explaining that the “constant inundation” leaves us with more “longing” in the same way you might yearn for other things in life, like love or prosperity.
There’s a subtle romanticism to the lyrics that enhances this aspect, even as he sings about all the ways that tech has wreaked havoc on modern life. “My life is hyperspace, summer days out of phase from the praise,” he sings, “Gamma rays touching base just in case tidal waves / Fueling hate, time it takes, overlaid, mutilated / Take your pay, celebrated, let your mind disintegrate.” He ends the song wanting to spend “all my nights and all my days with you”.
This yearning – to be literally anywhere else – is also a main feature of the arrangements, and immediately, it feels as though you’re transported somewhere specific, somewhere cathartic and separate from all of the chaos that Beck is trying to escape from – the lyrics themselves almost blend into the background, placing the focus on the emotion of the song’s atmosphere before anything else.
This also leaves room for multiple interpretations. You can detect the anguish in the song even without knowing what it’s about, but without diving deeper into its meaning, it tackles the feeling of reaching for a multitude of different emotions, not just the simple desire to leave a world rife with plague-like technology.