We've been witness to many different Becks over the years. There's the slack-rock ''Loser'' baby we came to know in the '90s, the sweaty L.A.-hipster funk troubadour, the record-bin sponge whose sound collages almost come in quote marks, even the experimentalist who released a book of sheet music last year. So it's understandable to wonder which Beck we're signing up for on Morning Phase , his 12th studio album.

The short answer is that it falls most in line with 2002's Sea Change , evoking a similarly dappled California folk-rock sound. But there's a new kind of hypnosis in the swooning vocals and traveling-poet lyricism here. And the loose lunar theme seems appropriate — the album swells with a gorgeous, twilit wonder. From the beguiling shimmer of early tracks ''Morning'' and ''Blue Moon'' to the warm waves crashing over the closer ''Waking Light,'' Phase exerts an almost cosmic gravitational pull; it practically comes with the ''repeat all'' button already set.

It's also one of the singer's loneliest works, but he manages to translate his melancholy into masterful starry-night beauty: ''Mountains are falling/They don't have nowhere to go/The ocean's a diamond/That only shines when you're alone.'' This isn't just good Beck, it's best Beck. A-

Best Tracks:
''Blue Moon''
''Morning ''