Beck’s ‘Song Reader’ Finally Gets an Album… and Every Cool Musician Is On It

July 9th, 2014

Nina Corcoran

Back in 2012, Beck put out Song Reader. It was his first set of new solo songs since 2008′s Modern Guilt, a whopping 20 tracks long, and… only sheet music? He created an album that he wanted fans to create themselves, giving everyone the lyrics and sheet music (tempo and notes included) to find out what the songs sounded like. The material has been performed sparsely at some concerts, but that’s about it. Well, until now.

Song Reader will now be released as an album on July 29 via Warby Parker (like the glasses) and Capitol Records. Even cooler than that, the full-length will include versions of the songs by musicians like Jarvis Cocker, Jack White, Jeff Tweedy‘s Tweedy band, Laura Marling, and fun. Don’t worry, though. Beck is singing some of the songs, too.

“Like a kid getting a special package in the mail and opening it up with anticipation, these interpretations of songs from the Song Reader book have surpassed what I could have imagined when putting the book together,” Beck says in a statement. “The book addressed the idea of a song in its most elemental form, letting others give it a voice. It amazes me to hear how these musicians have made the songs their own and in the process revealed that the interpretation is the living breathing soul of the piece. These interpretations have made the book something new — something better.”

See the full (and crazy exciting) tracklist below:

1. Moses Sumney – Title of This Song
2. Fun – Please Leave a Light on When You Go
3. Tweedy – The Wolf is on the Hill
4. Norah Jones – Just Noise
5. Lord Huron – Last Night You Were A Dream
6. Bob Forrest – Saint Dude
7. Jack White – I’m Down
8. Beck – Heaven’s Ladder
9. Juanes – Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard
10. Laura Marling – Sorry
11. Jarvis Cocker – Eyes That Say “I Love You”
12. David Johansen – Rough On Rats
13. Jason Isbell – Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings
14. Marc Ribot – The Last Polka
15. Eleanor Friedberger – Old Shanghai
16. Sparks – Why Did You Make Me Care?
17. Swamp Dogg – America, Here’s My Boy
18. Jack Black – We All Wear Cloaks
19. Loudon Wainwright III – Do We? We Do
20. Gabriel Kahane with Ymusic – Mutilation Rag