Beck Zegans – I Want You
Beck Zegans has shared “I Want You”, the lead single from Engraving of Armor, due May 22 on Exploding In Sound Records. The album’s nine tracks were built in Ridgewood, New York, starting from home demos and developed over a year of collaborative sessions with Alex MacKay (Nation of Language) on bass and synths, and Julian Fader (Remember Sports) on drums and synths. El Kempner of Palehound contributes lead guitar on two tracks. The whole thing was produced by MacKay, Zegans, and Fader together, mixed by Fader, and mastered by Amar Lal.
“I Want You” runs on machine-like drum pulses that shift tempo deliberately — the speed manipulation isn’t subtle, and it gives the track a slightly unsettled quality that suits the subject. Zegans describes it as a song about a love affair in New York where the past keeps eroding the present. The guitars are heavy enough to push things forward without overwhelming the analog synth textures underneath, and the result lands somewhere between tightly wound indie rock and something looser and more atmospheric. What catches my ear is how the tempo shifts don’t feel like a trick — they’re doing emotional work, stretching time in a way that mirrors the push-pull of the lyric.
The album title comes from a poem written by Zegans’ grandmother, Susan Zegans, and the closing track “Armor (Susan’s Poem)” takes its name directly from it. That personal thread runs through Engraving of Armor as a whole — the record deals with pandemic-era frustration and the construction of emotional distance, written, as Zegans put it, “with bare words that no longer hide behind metaphors.” The range on the tracklist is real: “Love In The End Times” sounds like it goes somewhere darker, while “Riddle” apparently leans into kaleidoscopic synth territory. “I Want You” lands in the middle of the album, but it makes a strong opening statement for what the full record might offer.
Worth hearing now, before it gets busy in May — and I’m curious where the rest of the album takes it.
Tracklist:
- When You Were In My Bed
- Record Tamer
- Love In The End Times
- I Want You
- Even On The Phone
- Slither
- Riddle
- Woods
- Armor (Susan’s Poem)
