How Elvis Presley influenced a Beck masterpiece

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Beck shares new acoustic ballad, ‘Thinking About You’

Fri 10 February 2023 9:50, UK

Beck - 'Thinking About You'

Eclectic singer-songwriter Beck has shared a brand new single titled ‘Thinking About You’. The stripped-back acoustic ballad currently appears as a stand-alone single with no follow-up to 2019’s Hyperspace announced at this juncture. The track comes as Beck’s first new music since his cover of Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’ last September.

‘Thinking About You’ arrives on the plaintive end of the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter’s diverse oeuvre. In the lyrics, Beck sings desperately: “Don’t treat me like a stranger, the other side of love,” adding later in the track that he has “crossed seven oceans,” presumably to get to the right side of love.

Though we welcome the beautiful studio version of the single today, Beck’s fans have been treated to a live version over the past few months, including an immaculate rendition during his performance at the Lafayette in London last September.

Since Hyperspace, Beck’s 14th studio album which arrived in February 2019, the musician has collaborated with Gorillaz on their popular 2020 hit ‘The Valley of the Pagans’. He also helped Damon Albarn and the group with their forthcoming Cracker Island track ‘Possession Island’.

Elsewhere, Beck contributed a cover of Paul McCartney’s ‘Find My Way’ to the coveted McCartney III: Imagined compilation in 2021. The tribute album also featured contributions from Phoebe Bridgers, Blood Orange, Khruangbin, Josh Homme, Damon Albarn and Robert Del Naja, among others.

In a balanced review of the album, Far Out wrote: “That’s the biggest complaint I have about McCartney III Imagined: more often than not, it tends to smooth the edges of McCartney’s experimental tendencies. Songs that were stripped back, acoustic, or downright strange to begin with are made more ordinary and standard. But the good news is that the reimagined album never loses that central lighthearted enjoyment that remains essential. You can tell everyone involved is having a blast shaping McCartney’s material in their own image, and McCartney clearly relishes the opportunity to view his creations through the eyes of other artists.”

This summer, Beck sets off on a North American co-headline tour alongside Phoenix. The ‘Summer Odyssey’ tour will kick off in Seattle on August 1st before further engagements across Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Chicago, Toronto, New York and other large cities.

Hear Beck’s ‘Thinking About You’ below.