Beck will release a new album in December, but it won't come in the form of MP3s, CD or vinyl – instead, Beck Hansen's Song Reader will be released by the publishing house McSweeney's as individual pieces of sheet music. 
 
 "The Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012," reads the post on Beck's website announcing the project. "An alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that's as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together." 
 
 At 108 pages comprising 20 individual song booklets, the Song Reader will feature 20 new tunes by Beck, 18 of them featuring lyrics and two instrumentals. The release will also include a hardcover carrying case, a foreword by Beck himself, and "full-color, heyday-of-home-play-inspired" original art from Marcel Dzama (who designed Beck's album Guero), Leanne Shapton, Josh Cochran, Jessica Hische, and others. 
 
 And what of hearing the album cuts like "Do We? We Do" or "Don't Act Like Your Heart Isn't Hard"? Well, "bringing them to life depends on you," according to the announcement. McSweeney's plans to feature renditions of the tracks on Song Reader performed by both readers and musicians, but there's no word on whether Beck himself will be among the performers. 
 
 In other not-quite-a-new-Beck-album news, Rework, his remix album collaboration with composer Philip Glass, will see its own release on October 23rd. ||||| Beck has also confirmed details of the long-gestating BECK HANSEN’S SONG READER, to be released December 2012 by McSweeney’s: 
 
 In the wake of Modern Guilt and The Information, Beck’s latest album comes in an almost-forgotten form—twenty songs existing only as individual pieces of sheet music, never before released or recorded. Complete with full-color, heyday-of- home-play-inspired art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case (and, when necessary, ukelele notation), the Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012—an alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that’s as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together. 
 
 The songs here are as unfailingly exciting as you’d expect from their author, but if you want to hear “Do We? We Do,” or “Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard,” bringing them to life depends on you. 
 
 BECK HANSEN’S SONG READER features original art from Marcel Dzama (who created the imagery for Beck’s acclaimed Guero), Leanne Shapton, Josh Cochran, Jessica Hische, and many more, as well as an introduction by Jody Rosen (Slate, The New York Times) and a foreword by Beck. The package measures 9.5” x 12.5” with 108 pages comprising 20 individual full-color song booklets—18 featuring original lyrics, and 2 instrumentals—with covers from more than a dozen different artists. 
 
 Readers’ (and select musicians’) renditions of the songs will be featured on the McSweeney’s website. Check back at http://www.mcsweeneys.net/ pages/song-reader and BECK.COM for further information and updates as they are available.
– If you want to hear Beck's new album, you better learn how to play a musical instrument. He'll be releasing Beck Hansen's Song Reader in December not as a CD, vinyl record, or digital files, but as … sheet music. "The Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012," reads the announcement on Beck's website. "An alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track"—and for which "bringing [the songs] to life depends on you." McSweeney's will publish the 20-song, 108-page album, which will include the song booklets, carrying case, art, and a foreword by Beck, Rolling Stone reports. The publishing house will also post versions of the songs as performed by both musicians and readers on its website. Will Beck be among those performers? Who knows.