Whether you’re a runner, mountaineer or an overall outdoors enthusiast, this series is for you. Here I review albums that I listen to while out on my runs in Utah’s great outdoors.

I’m in the thick of winter training for the Salt Lake City Marathon I’ll be participating in this spring. Climbing out of bed to run in pitch-black and icy conditions is not the ideal way to spend my semester, but someone has to get it done. I will admit that some days are harder than others getting outside, not only due to Utah’s unpredictable weather patterns but also my workload as a student. It makes it all the better to have someone– or something– there with me keeping me accountable for my training.

My running partners range from people I’ve met on campus through GroupMe and Discord or run clubs like Not That Serious Run Club (NTS) and SLCProject. But my favorite running partner is music. On days that I have to get through that long run, the BPM coming through the tunes in my earbuds gets me through each one.

Today’s review is based on an experiment: Beck’s “Morning Phase” album. This listen surprised me and gave me an instantaneous spark for my long training day. As the opening track came on, I was eager to know how it would affect my pace, given it was my tempo run. Luckily, due to its ease of motion lyrically and instrumentally, I found myself caught in the rhythm of it.

The track list contains 13 songs, with an average BPM of 114, the slowest at 76, and the fastest at 148. It’s slower than I’m used to for a run, yet it has a consistent flow throughout. That could be the indicator of the album’s success on today’s run.

Beck is a versatile artist, we all know this. As the sun began to set, “Morning Phase” had me in a trance looking around at the fallen snowflakes and golden skies. This album sounds like what a runner’s high feels like. If you’ve ever had runner’s high or listened to this album, then you know what I’m talking about. “Morning Phase," specifically tracks “Blue Moon” and “Waking Light,” sounds like running up a mountainous hill with wind and leaves blowing through your hair. This fact added to the literal wind and leaves blowing toward me as I rushed down City Creek and Memory Grove. It felt like a movie.

The ambiance from the range of instrumentation used in “Morning Phase” sets a creative tone of the surrounding sounds of nature. Looking out at the dead plants and dry winter air can be disheartening, but the imaginative colors provided by this album can fix that. Each song plays its part.

It’s cold in the air, but Beck’s vocals will soothe you with warmth. Or the running will do the work. Listen to the album here the next time you’re outside or wherever you listen to music.