Though his new album Morning Phase came out all the way back in February, Beck finally made his way to The Colbert Report studio last night, where he sat down for an expectedly funny chat with Stephen Colbert before performing two songs. You can check out the interview and his two performances below.

Beck and Colbert discussed the “folky” and “contemplative” nature of Morning Phase, which Beck describes as being “good for massages and aromatherapy.” Colbert also addresses Beck’s penchant for hopping around genres, and describes the singer’s music as “Neo-lo-fi-rave-funk,” though Beck himself describes it as “jungle-dub-coolout-lounge…banjo, as well…a lot of hyphens.” The low-key atmosphere of Morning Phase also prompts Colbert to ask, “Why Beck sad?,” to which Beck replies, “I just need a hug.”

The two also discuss Beck’s upcoming Song Reader album, which will feature twenty different artists (including Beck) performing their own versions of songs from Beck’s Song Reader book of sheet music, which was published back in 2012. The album will feature contributions from Jack White and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, whom Beck admits are better at singing his own songs than he is.

After the interview, Beck goes on to perform two songs: “The Heart is a Drum” from Morning Phase and “Heaven’s Ladder” from Song Reader. You can check out the interview and two performances right here:

Morning Phase was one of Music Times’ choices for our list of the best albums released so far in 2014. You can check out the complete list right here.

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