 |
 |
Paul Simon
Surprise
(Warner)
It may be the most appropriate album title from Art Garfunkel's former foil since There Goes Rhymin' Simon. Certainly few would have expected the singer-songwriter to celebrate his 65th year by recruiting producer Brian Eno to program some state-of-the-dance beats behind alternately folky and funky songs.
Not that Simon has gone all Cher on us; in Eno's hands, the electronic touches are subtle ... if not always appropriate (i.e., yay to the moody How Can You Live in the Northeast; nay to the tepid Outrageous).
That subtlety is important, as Simon has a lot to say about the sorry state of the union, and about the declining tolerance evident in the society the New Yorker once beheld with such wonder. The America of How Can You Live is less welcoming than was that of, say, America. And the artist makes clear in the powerful Wartime Prayers, easy answers will no longer suffice: "People hungry for the voice of God hear lunatics and liars."
Yet, ever the comforting soul, Simon literally brings it back home with the final track, an affectionate ode to his daughter that advises her simply to "help the human race."
That, after all, is the spirit of Paul Simon's America.
|
Track Listing:
1. How Can You Live In the Northeast
2. Everything About It Is A Love Song
3. Outrageous
4. Sure Don't Feel Like Love
5. Wartime Prayers
6. Beautiful
7. I Don't Believe
8. Another Galaxy
9. Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean
10. That's Me
11. Father And Daughter