Beck, Royal Albert Hall, review: a scruffy troubadour backed by the power of the BBC Concert Orchestra

Telegraph

20-04-2025

Beck has played the Royal Albert Hall once before, over 20 years ago. 'I don't know what I was thinking, but I played by myself,' the American musician said upon his return to Kensington on Saturday night. 'I'm making up for it this time. Overcompensating.' His band and the 80-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Edwin Outwater, kept him company during the first of two shows at the opulent London venue, following last year's nine-stop US tour where he commanded the faculties of each town's resident orchestra, including New York's Carnegie Hall.
It might seem an odd pairing: a scruffy Dylan-like troubadour sharing a stage with a formal institution. Beck was, after all, one of the first artists to light the spark that tore along the borders between genres. Since the 1990s he's built songs from hip-hop, folk, blues, and suburban pop culture, all with a maverick's glee.
But his discography has slow, string-filled moments too, particularly on 2002 navel gazer Sea Change and its 2014 Grammy-winning unofficial sister, Morning Phase. 'I dug through all my songs that had strings in them,' he explained. The resulting setlist: songs he rarely gets to play and audiences rarely get to hear.
Songs that, in an ordinary setting, might signal a bathroom break for fans of Beck's poppier, Prince-ier output became rapturous. Widescreen opener The Golden Age led into Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime, literally cinematic: he covered the Korgis tune for 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The high melancholy of Lonesome Tears and Wave was almost overwhelming, and Tarantula erred on Bono-style histrionics. But Beck lifted the mood with Jagger-ish dance moves on 1996 favourite The New Pollution, and the entire orchestra seemed to hop, skip, and jump during Blue Moon.
Beck cited The Beatles, Serge Gainsbourg, and Francoise Hardy as some of his orchestral inspirations (dedicating his version of We Live Again to the latter), but chief among them was Scott Walker. 'I think of this as £100,000 karaoke, so indulge me,' he said, before parting the clouds during his cover of It's Raining Today.
The traditional setting didn't quash his trademark comic charm. 'Holy s--t, they clear out fast,' he remarked as the orchestra left the stage after the main set. Like an unattended child he roamed the deserted stands and chairs, accidentally knocking sheafs of music to the floor, thumping the timpani ('I've been wanting to do that all night'), trying the conductor's podium for size, and getting distracted by the Grand Organ: 'What the f--k's up there, the phantom of the opera?'
He pulled a harmonica out of his back pocket for wonky lo-fi stomper One Foot In The Grave — 'I've fallen far from an 80-piece orchestra to one harmonica' — and then, with a magician's flick of the wrist, transformed the mood again, from one-man comedy show to standard gig, for Devil's Haircut, Mixed Bizness, and 1996 slide guitar smash Loser.
Playing the Royal Albert Hall with a full orchestra is an easy win, but the songs need to be able to hold the weight of the room and its players, and the performer needs to be immune to potential stuffiness. Beck checked all of those boxes.