For the album, Beck reunited the core players from his beloved 2002 album, Sea Change � Smokey Hormel, Justin Meldal-Johnson, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Joey Waronker � with the inspiration of making something "coming out of a California tradition," as he told Rolling Stone recently. "I'm hearing the Byrds, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Gram Parsons, Neil Young � the bigger idea of what that sound is to me."

Listening to the playback of the album, what we heard was all of that and more. While Beck has been quick to dismiss the notion that the new album is a sequel to Sea Change, Morning Phase does strike a similar mood throughout, rich with multi-tracked harmonies and warm, detailed melodies.

It's easy to imagine Morning Phase hitting a new generation with the same impact that Sea Change galvanized listeners more than a decade ago. It's the sound of surviving that tumultuous heartbreak, and being able to look back on it with more fondness than regret, older, wiser and through the forgiving patina of time.

Opening song "Morning" sets the album's deep, languid mood, with Beck intoning, "Woke up this morning/ From a long night in the storm," over rich acoustic guitars and a patient rhythm.

The album is cloaked in a mood both rustic and luxurious, with an astounding attention to detail in the mix, an ideal soundtrack to Beck's tales of "getting through that long, dark night of the soul � whatever you want to call it," as he said in the same Rolling Stone interview. "These songs were about coming out of that � how things do get better."