There was a period in the early aughts when the surreal sound design in "Lost Cause" was kind of everywhere in a lot of sophisticated art. Immediately jumping to my mind is the sound design in P.T. Anderson's amazing little film Punch Drunk Love. There is something so representative of the thinking mind in those flitting, alien sounds. Both Punch Drunk Love and "Lost Cause" seem to delve into the strange head space that love and trauma places a person into.

Anyway, it's a great touch and really conveys that we're among another's turbulent thoughts.

What will make my cry every time in this song is the verse guitar, so airy, so pure with those ringing high strings, so sincere in its performance. This is a song about giving up on a very long relationship, a titanic event in one's life where you simply must step out into an unknown void, always with so many dark questions about yourself. And the guitar part conveys to me almost a kind of apology to the person Beck is singing to. It's sweet, conciliatory, encouraging but sad; and it's final. It's the musical sound of love and goodbye at the same time.

The vocal does what it needs to do. There is no usual Beck vocal line flash. The lyrics are all straightforward phrases. There is no syntactical playfulness, no alchemy of words. Its simplicity and yet outstanding beauty grips me. This is one of the songs.

The choruses are excellent also, almost emotional breaks for us and Beck alike. They are Beck's final, self-comforting judgement: This is a lost cause.

The middle development is a modest ray of sunshine. Great chords as always.

For a guy known as a musical prankster, Beck's ballads show that his big, blue eyes see clear. He is a generational talent.