Beck strips down his electro-folk single “Saw Lightning” to a bluesy howl in a new “Freestyle” version.
In a grainy black-and-white video, the singer-songwriter alternates between a belted vocal and distorted harmonica — accompanied only by his stomping feet. He speeds up and slows down at random, briefly slipping into a high falsetto.
The original “Saw Lightning” appears on Beck’s upcoming 14th LP, Hyperspace, which Capitol Records notes is due out “sometime in the future.” Pharrell Williams produced the song, contributing “drums, keyboards and mumbles” to the sleek cut.
Hyperspace will follow Beck’s 2017 record, Colors, which won Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Since issuing that LP, he’s covered Colourbox’s “Tarantula” for the Roma soundtrack, co-produced Jenny Lewis’ On the Line, collaborated with Cage the Elephant on the band’s “Night Running” and teamed with the Bird and the Bee to cover Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher.”
Beck will finish out the summer on a co-headlining North American tour with Cage the Elephant. Spoon will join as special guests on the 30-date trek, which kicks off July 11th in Ridgefield, Washington and wraps August 30th in West Palm Beach, Florida.