Editing Beck (section)

===''Sea Change'' (2002–2003)===
In 2000, Beck and his fiancée, stylist Leigh Limon, ended their nine-year relationship.<ref name="age">{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/28/1032734372703.html|title=Beck to basics|author=Paul Lester|date=September 29, 2002|newspaper=[[The Age]]|access-date=February 13, 2011|location=Melbourne|archive-date=November 9, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101109171256/http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/28/1032734372703.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Beck lapsed into a period of melancholy and introspection, during which he wrote the bleak, acoustic-based tracks later found on ''Sea Change''.<ref name="heartbreak">{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1457794/beck-pours-his-heart-out.jhtml|title=Beck Shoots For Feel-Good Acoustic Heartbreak LP|author=Jon Wiederhorn|date=September 26, 2002|publisher=MTV News|access-date=February 13, 2011|archive-date=June 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629172143/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1457794/beck-pours-his-heart-out.jhtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> Beck sat on the songs, not wanting to talk about his personal life; he later said that he wanted to focus on music and "not really strew my baggage across the public lobby". Eventually, however, he decided the songs spoke to a common experience, and that it would not seem self-indulgent to record them.<ref name="beckchecksin">{{cite news| title=Beck Checks in to Heartbreak Hotel|author=Issac Guzman|date=September 29, 2002|newspaper=[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]] |location=New York}}</ref> In 2001, Beck drifted back to the songs and called Godrich.<ref name="time">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101020930-353545,00.html|title=Beck Gets (Kind of) Blue|author=Josh Tyrangial|date=September 22, 2002|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=February 13, 2011|archive-date=October 27, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027013610/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101020930-353545,00.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Retailers initially predicted that the album would not receive much radio support, but they also believed that Beck's maverick reputation and critical acclaim, in addition to the possibility of multiple Grammy nominations, might offset ''Sea Change''{{'}}s noncommercial sound.<ref name="beckchecksin"/> ''Sea Change'', issued by Geffen in September 2002, was regardless a commercial hit and critical darling,<ref name="nyt05"/> with ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' revering it as "the best album Beck has ever made, [...] an impeccable album of truth and light from the end of love. This is his ''[[Blood on the Tracks]]''."<ref name=rs02review>{{cite news| url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sea-change-20020910| title=Review: ''Sea Change'', Beck| work=[[Rolling Stone (magazine)|Rolling Stone]]| date=October 3, 2002| access-date=July 11, 2013| author=[[Fricke, David|David Fricke]]| issue=906| pages=97–98| publisher=[[Jann Wenner|Wenner Media]] [[Limited liability company|LLC]]| location=New York City| issn=0035-791X| archive-date=June 24, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624123003/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sea-change-20020910| url-status=live}}</ref> The album was later listed by the magazine as one of the best records of the decade and of all time, and it also placed second on the year's [[Pazz & Jop]] Critics Poll. ''Sea Change'' yielded a low-key, theater-based acoustic tour, as well as a larger tour with [[The Flaming Lips]] as Beck's opening and backing band.<ref name="becktour">{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1456011/beck-sets-up-acoustic-tour.jhtml|title=Beck Previewing New Songs on Acoustic Tour|author=Jon Wiederhorn|date=July 10, 2002|publisher=MTV News|access-date=February 13, 2011|archive-date=June 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629172310/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1456011/beck-sets-up-acoustic-tour.jhtml|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="flaminglips">{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1457030/flaming-lips-backing-beck.jhtml|title=Beck's Plan For Keeping Everyone Awake: The Flaming Lips|author=Jon Wiederhorn|date=August 14, 2002|publisher=MTV News|access-date=February 13, 2011|archive-date=June 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629172248/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1457030/flaming-lips-backing-beck.jhtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> Beck was playful and energetic, sometimes throwing in covers of [[The Rolling Stones]], [[Big Star]], [[The Zombies]] and [[The Velvet Underground]].<ref name="rs02review"/><ref name="jackwhite">{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1456977/beck-gets-giggles-jack-white-mi.jhtml|title=Beck Gets The Giggles, White Stripes' Jack at Michigan Gig|author=Christina Fuoco|date=August 12, 2002|publisher=MTV News|access-date=February 13, 2011|archive-date=June 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629172314/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1456977/beck-gets-giggles-jack-white-mi.jhtml|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following the release of ''Sea Change'', Beck felt newer compositions were sketches for something more evolved in the same direction, and wrote nearly 35 more songs in the coming months, keeping demos of them on tapes in a suitcase.<ref name="p4k11"/> During his solo tour, the tapes were left backstage during a stop in Washington, D.C., and Beck was never able to recover them. It was disheartening to the musician, who felt the two years of songwriting represented something more technically complex. As a result, Beck took a break and wrote no original compositions in 2003.<ref name="p4k11"/> Feeling as though it might take him a while to "get back to that [songwriting] territory", he entered the studio with Dust Brothers to complete a project that dated back to ''Odelay''. Nearly half of the songs had existed since the 1990s.<ref name="p4k11"/>