Modern Guilt

Beck and Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) first met to record in December 2007 and finished two tracks in two days. Beck had known Burton casually, since some of his musicians also played with Burton's Gnarls Barkley, and said they spent the first week talking about records. Beck first planned ten short tracks of about two minutes each. Songs began with an acoustic guitar and a drumbeat, with Burton adding keyboard bass and Beck the other instruments. Beck called it the most intensive work he had done, fitting two years of songwriting into two and a half months with at least ten weeks without a day off. He had suffered a serious spinal injury before the sessions and said it hurt to sing.

At 33 minutes it is Beck's shortest album, and it was the last under his contract with Interscope Geffen A&M, after which he signed to Capitol. It was released on 7 July 2008 in the United Kingdom and Europe and the next day in the United States. It entered the Billboard 200 at number four, gave him his first UK top ten at number nine, and sold 84,000 copies in its first US week. It was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 51st Grammys and lost to Radiohead's In Rainbows. Cat Power contributes to two tracks. The Guardian ranked Walls, which Beck wrote with Danger Mouse, Paul Guiot and Paul Piot, 26th, and Chemtrails 16th.