Guilty as Charged.

2008 has been a busy year for Danger Mouse, having already released a new Gnarls Barkley album and performed production duty for The Shortwave Set, The Black Keys, and Martina Topley-Bird. Now he pops up as co-producer on Beck’s eight album Modern Guilt.

Everything about Modern Guilt screams “Danger Mouse was ‘ere”, the quiet cool, the late 60’s early 70’s psychedelic rock, the high-hat, the stomping dance tunes are all here. But, it is also unmistakably Beck, bringing his vocal drawl, smart rhymes, eccentric lyrics and love of genre switching. The cumulative result is Beck’s most consistent and best album since 2001’s Sea Change.

The albums two most upbeat tracks are Gamma Ray and Modern Guilt, musically neither would feel out of place on the last Gnarls Barkley album, bouncing along while Beck ironically sings about perils of modern life: environmental carnage, social disconnection, and self pity.

Lead single Chemtrails is the album’s highlight; it is a spaced-out rock track, the oh-so paranoid lyrics tell a story of military experimentation while the song strays all over great synth line before tumbling back into place with a huge drum fill.

Replica is a drum and bass track that, courtesy of its slick production and layered keyboards, does not feel out of place wedged between the airy pop of Walls and labouring rock track Soul of a Man.

On album closer Volcano, Beck tells us “I don't know, Where I've been, But I know, Where I'm going, To that Volcano”. We can only hope that when he returns from the volcano he gets straight back into the studio with Danger Mouse.