'90s Rock Legend Releases 'Sublime' New Single and Fans Say It's an 'Instant Classic'
It's no exaggeration to say that Beck has had one of the most innovative, diverse careers of any rock star in history. From the moment he burst onto the scene with the '90s anthem "Loser," the musician has experimented with just about every genre, from folk to country to pop to hip-hop, all with great success. Now, if Beck's latest single is any indication, it seems he might be gearing up for another introspective, reflective period, similar to the music on two of his most beloved albums, Sea Change (2002) and Morning Phase (2014)
Following the late-January release of his EP, Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime - a collection of covers and rarities - Beck just dropped a new single, "Ride Lonesome," which reunited the Grammy winner with the team that worked on Sea Change (guitarists Jason Falkner and Smokey Hormel, drummer Joey Waronker and producer Nigel Godrich).
Fans on YouTube were quick to rave about the track.
"When Beck writes a lonely acoustic song in the key of E, it's an instant classic," declared one person, with a second calling it "sublime."
"Love it! Beck is truly the most talented musician imo! Just so amazing!" wrote another fan, as yet another commenter confessed, "This song soothes my soul."
Beck was going through a 'lonely time' when he wrote 'Ride Lonesome'
In a recent interview with NPR, Beck opened up about the inspiration behind "Ride Lonesome."
"It was a bit of a lonely time," he said. "It was one of those times in your life when you're taking things in, where you've been and where you're going. You know, when you're going through difficult things, often you have to get through it yourself. You just have to move forward through whatever landscape of your life and circumstances you find yourself in. And I think it's sort of that dark comfort of pushing through the parts of life that are maybe not as comfortable or easy, and having some distant faith that it will pull you through to the other side."
As for whether or not fans can look forward to a new full-length album and what else he's been up to, Beck admitted that while he "had to wait a couple of years to get back to work [after COVID]," he's been "writing a lot of songs."
"It's been a very prolific time for me," he said. "I did a song with Gorillaz and I did one with Paul McCartney, and we did a fun video together. I helped write a Black Keys album called Ohio Players. I think I wrote like 10 or 12 of those songs. And then I've just been working on my music pretty constantly. I built a recording studio."
"You know, I've been living life. I've probably made multiple albums' worth of music that probably no one will ever hear, but hopefully it leads to something," Beck continued. "I've got lots of things cooking. I've been in the studio a lot on and off the last four years with my band. There's a group of musicians I came up with that were my touring band for a lot of my early records. And everybody's gone off to bigger and better things, but we still get together and we'll find a couple of days here and there and make some music. And yeah, I have a lot of different projects I want to do, so hopefully there's time to get to all of them."
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This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 5:11 PM.