Just months after The Flaming Lips released limited edition copies of their new album featuring the band’s actual human blood, fellow US oddball Beck has also chosen to present his upcoming record in an equally unusual but less gruesome fashion.
Unfortunately, unless you’re an accomplished musician, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever get to hear it in the way it was intended, as the self-proclaimed ‘Loser‘ has opted to release his 12th studio effort, the appropriately-titled ‘Song Reader,’ in sheet music format only.
Yes, while most albums deal in running times, the follow-up to 2008’s ‘Modern Guilt’ will instead have a page-count of 108, thanks to 20 coloured booklets instructing his more musically-inclined fans how to bring the songs to life.
Lee Brackstone, the Publishing Director of Faber and Faber who are issuing the album, said:
“Beck is one of the great maverick popstars of this, or any age, and as soon as I saw Song Reader the relevance of the concept struck me.
“Song Reader makes a radical statement about the value and importance of performed and recorded music at a time when these very things are under threat.”
Alkaline Trio and Deerhoof have previously issued singles as downloadable scores, but this is the first time a mainstream artist has committed an entire record to the format.
However, for those who find even ‘Chopsticks’ a bit of a stretch, American publisher McSweeney’s are set to host renditions of the songs by Beck’s friends and fans on their website.
