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Modern Guilt is the eleventh studio album by American alternative musician Beck. It was released on July 8, 2008.^[1] The album fulfills Beck's recording contract with Interscope Records.^[2] Outside of North America, the record was released by XL Recordings^[3] (see 2008 in music).

Modern Guilt features two contributions by Cat Power^[4] and was produced by Beck and Danger Mouse.^[5]. It also has a 60's/70's psychedelia/surf-rock style.

A vinyl edition of the album, including download codes for 320-kbit/s MP3s direct from the master vinyl, was released on July 22, 2008.^[6]

^Reception

The album entered both the Billboard 200 and the Canadian Albums Chart at number four, and gave Beck his first ever Top 10 placing on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number nine. The album has also been Beck's best charting album in Australia, reaching 13. In the US, the album sold 84,000 copies in its first week.^[7] Although successful, this does not match the first week sales of The Information, which were 99,000.^[7]

The album received generally positive reviews upon release, earning a rating of 77 out of 100 on Metacritic.^[8] Filter said of the album "Beck is somehow more aware while puffing out his waves of broken poetry as opposed to the casual seed-spitting he has been known to turn to,"^[8] and Allmusic said that it was "an effective dosage of 21st century paranoia."^[9] Some negative reviews, such as PopMatters, said that the album "lacks the unique resonating timbres one is accustomed to with Beck,"^[10] and The Guardian called it "a vanity project".^[11] In December 2008, Modern Guilt was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 51st Grammy Awards, but it later lost to In Rainbows by Radiohead.

Acoustic Sessions

In July 2009, Beck began uploading videos on a weekly basis of full band "unplugged" performances of each track on the record. The videos are being released in order of the tracks as they appear on the album, which is set to conclude on 14 September, 2009 with "Volcano". These videos appear exclusively on vimeo.com. These acoustic sessions had been recorded earlier in the year, following Beck's tour of Japan. Four unspecified tracks are to be released on an official limited edition EP.

[edit] Track listing

All songs were written and composed by Beck (except as noted) and were produced by Danger Mouse and Beck.

1. "Orphans" (with vocals by Chan Marshall, bass by Jason Falkner) – 3:15
2. "Gamma Ray" – 2:56
3. "Chemtrails" (with bass and guitar by Jason Falkner) – 4:40
4. "Modern Guilt" – 3:14
5. "Youthless" – 2:59
6. "Walls" (with vocals by Chan Marshall) (Beck/Danger Mouse/Paul Guiot/Paul Piot) – 2:22
7. "Replica" – 3:25
8. "Soul of a Man" – 2:36
9. "Profanity Prayers" – 3:43
10. "Volcano" – 4:28