Codebreaker

The sound of Beck’s new record: crinkly paper

Marc Sanchez Aug 13, 2012

BitTorrents be damned! Nobody is going to be leaking the new Beck record. That’s because he’s releasing the whole thing as sheet music. That’s right, you’re a loser baby, especially since you can’t read sheet music and therefore will never be able to listen to the new Beck record. The “album” is called “Beck Hansen’s Reader” and will be out in December.

Beck’s site has the details:

… twenty songs existing only as individual pieces of sheet music, never before released or recorded. Complete with full-color, heyday-of- home-play-inspired art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case (and, when necessary, ukelele notation), the Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012—an alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that’s as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together.

If you’re ukulele notation, and sheet music reading, skills aren’t up to snuff, a group of select artists will be working up renditions of the songs and posting them on McSweeney’s, which happens to be publishing the throwback. Of course, if you do read music, you’re invited to join the party – record and upload your own versions. Now, you too can record your own Beck album.

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