Released: 2026

Genres: Country Folk, Americana, Chamber Folk

The Musiquarium’s Ride Lonesome Review Score: 6.5 out of 10

Morning Phase followed Sea Change by 12 years, and Beck’s newest folk album, Ride Lonesome, arrives another 12 years later; some might say that this is the third album of a thematic trilogy, but it feels more like Beck is just trying to win back some credibility with the path of least resistance, through the “emotional break-up folk album”. The only thing is, he already did this much better in 2002.Where Beck was once one of the most adventurous musicians of his time, it seems that he’s long run out of ideas. Despite the diminishing returns of yet another Beck folk album, Ride Lonesome is guaranteed to be a hit with the Grammy Awards.

The title track is one of the stronger tracks, but the chorus of “you’ve got to ride lonesome, you’ve got to try to find the road, you’ve go to cry a river, and follow it all the way home” seem more like something that a first-time songwriter might write, or at best, the Beck of Colors, not the guy who wrote songs like Guess I’m Doing Fine or Lonesome Tears.

Run Away and In the Night are both decent too, but once you’re past these first few tracks, the album starts to get very one-note and narcoleptic. For Your Love is mostly just melodramatic strings and nothing else. Falling Through My Hands is one of the other songs that stands out, but maybe that’s because it sounds vaguely reminiscent of Radiohead’s No Surprises.

I will say that Beck’s voice does sound good here and the folk instrumentation itself is mostly pleasant, but that doesn’t change the fact that this album feels like an imitation of something superior, and from an artist like Beck, okay just isn’t good enough.

After a 7 year absence from Beck, which followed a decade of three of his most uninspired albums, I wasn’t exactly expecting much of anything from him, but I was hoping for more than a third retread of Sea Change. Like a classic film with multiple unnecessary sequels, the legacy of Sea Change has only been diminished through half-hearted attempts at recapturing its glory.

In the chorus of Run Away, Beck sings “there’s nothing left to say”, and considering that Beck hasn’t done anything interesting in 20 years, I’d say that the same sentence rings true about his career.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Beck on Discogs.

Back to the 2026 Album Guide or the Beck Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard