Beck's Next Release Will Be a DIY Songbook

In keeping things progressively innovative, Beck will be releasing a new compilation of material this winter in the form of a do-it-yourself songbook. The project will contain 20 never-before-heard tracks by the renowned musician, although to hear the songs you will have to play them yourself via the book’s accompanying sheet music.

Complete with full-color, heyday-of-home-play-inspired art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case (and, when necessary, ukelele notation), the Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012–an alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that’s as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together.

The songs here are as unfailingly exciting as you’d expect from their author, but if you want to hear “Do We? We Do,” or “Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard,” bringing them to life depends on you.

The work will be titled Beck Hansen’s Song Reader and is slated to become available during December of this year.