Singer and songwriter Beck has worn many different hats through the years, both figuratively and literally – to emote the direction he’s traveling musically.

Imagine Beck in 1996 during the release of his most-recognized album, “Odelay” – a collectively cool and often eager record. It is easy to imagine the singer with a broken-in baseball cap worn backwards. It suits the hip-hop and folk rock blend he was sporting at the time.

Then there is “Sea Change”-era Beck from 2002. It is several notches more somber, yet charming. Perhaps a fedora, feathered and all, fit Beck that time, which put him in a rare league among white guys who could actually pull off the dented piece of headwear.

If that’s the case, then the contemporary Beck – the one who just released his first album in more than five years, “Morning Phase” – is wearing his favorite traveler’s hat. This version of the songwriter is not on an exuberant quest to find happy adventures with a clean thick-brimmed hat to protect his eyes from the warming sun – quite the contrary. This hat is tattered to bits and disproportionately rests upon his head, pulled down over his face to shield the artist’s eyes from any reminiscence of contentment.

“Morning Phase” is slow paced, existential and ominous. The mood is set from the beginning; dreamy cellos sluggishly transition into “Morning,” where Beck’s mumbling voice guides the song through layers of synths, bells and a relaxed acoustic guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZo8_IV0IGQ

The artist’s anguish is assertively revealed in “Blue Moon.”

“I’m so tired of being alone/These penitent walls are all I’ve known/Songbird calling across the water/Inside my silent asylum,” he sings in the opening verse of the song.

Whatever was haunting Beck during the past half decade did a number to his psyche. However, tragedy in music often makes for the best sounds. There is authenticity to songs that show vulnerability or put the listener inside the frame of the artist’s isolative state. Beck does an exceptional job at pulling in whoever will listen into that darkened romantic state.

The album follows a pattern of either spacious songs with very dense orchestral strings that hover above the track, or songs that follow the traditional guitar flow not unfamiliar to Beck. Those symphonic tracks are sometimes accompanied by a phased-out piano that gently pulsates throughout the track. But there is just one steady dynamic controlling “Morning Phase” — perhaps there could be a more change in dynamic from the gloomy unilateral flow. Then again, that might spoil the mood and not accurately capture where Beck is artistically now.

“Morning Phase” is like being in a vivid dream or looking out of the window of an airplane during an overcast evening. Perhaps Beck is exhibiting his true anguish, or maybe this effort is more about the maturation of a veteran artist. The unkempt traveler’s hat suits him well.

“Morning Phase” can be purchased on Amazon or iTunes, or streamed on Spotify.

Dylan Frost can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @DFrost90 or by phone at 536-3311 ext. 254.