Beck – Up All Night

When Beck originally revealed ‘Up All Night’, it was taken straight from the FIFA soundtrack, and so it unsurprisingly wobbled more towards his chart-ready side than his more left-field leanings, which made it far removed from the Americana twang of his last album ‘Morning Phase’. It might have just been a small glimmer into what he had planned, but it suggested that the follow-up to the Grammy Award-winning album might lean much further towards euphoria rather than melancholia.

With his new album ‘Colors’ finally on the horizon, Beck’s been continuing to prepare us for that much brighter, upbeat album, with the likes of ‘Wow’ showing off his off-kilter side. On the other hand, despite its fun nature, the subversion of a well-known idiom on the recent, piano-driven ‘Dear Life’ suggested that Mr. Hansen’s latest wouldn’t be entirely made up of sunshine and rainbows.

With the new version of ‘Up All Night’ though, there’s only one emotion present: pure, unbridled joy. Okay, it might have a bit of a yearning aspect to its refrain of “just want to stay up all night with you”, but with its skittering, rattling percussion, warped, driving guitar melodies, bursts of major key pianos and that explosion of a chorus, it’s clear that Beck’s determined to simply brighten up your day. It’s been a good few years since he’s sounded so unreservedly exuberant, and that’s a very Good Thing.