Paul Simon looks at life in 'Surprise'

Rating: A

By JONATHAN TAKIFF

Will we still love Paul Simon, when he's 64? With his new 'Surprise' album, out today, the answer is an emphatic 'yes.'

Ironically, that's the only sure conclusion to reach with this set of densely packed, mostly unresolved life inquiries.

A concept album in both style and substance, the project finds the increasingly rhythm-'n'-texture-focused artist throwing his tunes off-kilter with eerie flourishes by soundscape master Brian Eno.

Thematically, Paulie's new songs are even more unsettling, still searching (as he has since the 'Bookends' days) for answers in this unpredictable and cruel world.

Even domestically, we're pitted against one another, unraveling the social fabric. So suggest 'How Can You Live in the Northeast' and 'Sure Don't Feel Like Love.' Our lives unspool so randomly that it's difficult to prove a grand spiritual design, argues the agnostic in 'I Don't Believe.'

Then, in 'Wartime Prayers,' the narrator challenges the cloak of spiritual certainty that some leaders wear as rationalization for their conduct. Counters the songster: 'I don't pretend that I'm a mastermind with a genius marketing plan. I'm trying to tap into some wisdom, even a little drop will do.'

So should we feel happy for the subject in 'Another Galaxy' who's run away on her wedding day?

Should we laugh with or at the aging subject of 'Outrageous' for becoming a fitness freak and painting his hair 'the color of mud.'

Why, it's not even certain what the singer/songwriter is thinking about the couple who keep adopting needy foreign kids - only the song's title, 'Beautiful,' hints of praise.

Still, there's strength in this uncommon dose of honesty. In an age where the spin of 'truthiness' trumps the certain thing, it's refreshing to hear a 'voice of the people' acknowledge that he's as dumbfounded as the rest of us schlubbs.