Beck’s new album to be released as sheet music

Alt-rock veteran Beck has announced that his new album, Beck Hansen’s Song Reader, will be released as sheet music rather than a recorded audio album.
While some renditions of the songs will be featured on the publisher’s website for his less musically inclined fans, Beck himself will not be recording the songs or releasing them in the usual CD or MP3 formats.
Posting on his website, the musician said that he will be partnering with American publishing house McSweeny’s to release the 20-song album in the “almost-forgotten form” of sheet music. While we can’t agree that sheet music is an abandoned anachronism of the past, what with digital scores and printed songbooks still flying off the shelves here at Musicroom, it is none the less an intriguing project.
The specially produced sheet music songbook will feature “full color, heyday-of-home-play-inspired art” for each track from artists such as Marcel Dzama, Leanne Shapton, Josh Cochran, Jessica Hische and many more. Jody Rosen of The Slate will provide a written introduction while Beck himself has penned a foreword.
Beck will perform a secret show in San Francisco this evening to showcase his material in anticipation for the songbook’s release.
Can’t wait to play Beck’s new material for yourself? Browse his previous songbooks, sheet music and works at Musicroom.com!
What do you think about artists releasing their music through sheet music and scores rather than records?