Seven years is a long time to pass between records. Beck spent most of it punctuated by one-off singles, guest spots and tours, and as of Friday the gap closes: Ride Lonesome, his 16th studio album and first set of all-new material since 2019’s Hyperspace, is out via Capitol Records.
Live Nation Ontario paired the release news with a reminder for the hometown-adjacent crowd — Beck plays Toronto this fall, a two-night stand at Massey Hall on Oct. 14 and 15. Both dates sit inside the Ride Lonesome Tour, a six-week run that opened Sept. 16 and wraps at the end of October with two-night stands in San Francisco, Toronto and Brooklyn.
The album arrived the way the roll-out promised. Beck announced it on July 15 alongside the meditative single “In the Night,” then followed with “Disappearing Act” on Aug. 19. The title track landed first, and NPR called it “as moving and beautifully produced as any of his most beloved work.” Beck produced Ride Lonesome himself; Nigel Godrich, a longtime Radiohead collaborator, handled the mix.
The title is a borrowed one. Ride Lonesome is also a 1959 Randolph Scott western, directed by Budd Boetticher — a coincidence Clash flagged when the album was announced, and one that fits an album title written in the language of drift and distance.
Toronto has heard from Beck recently, though not like this. His last shows in the city were a two-night orchestral engagement at Roy Thomson Hall on July 18 and 19, 2025, backed by strings and leaning on catalogue deep cuts like “Lonesome Tears” and “Lost Cause.” The Massey Hall dates promise the other Beck: a band, a hall that predates the electric guitar, and a setlist finally forced to make room for new songs.
San Francisco and Brooklyn get the same double-treatment, which makes Toronto one of three cities the tour treats as a destination rather than a stop. For anyone who has been counting the months since Hyperspace, the run stops being theoretical on a Wednesday night in October.
