THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Thursday, May 11, 2006

‘ Surprise ’ Paul Simon

Bill Eichenberger

Simon collaborates with "sound sculptor" Brian Eno, he, briefly, of Roxy Music fame. Eno went on to gain a reputation as the adventurous producer of an eclectic range of musicians from the Talking Heads and U2 to David Bowie.

A drum loop and softly churning electric guitar lead the listener into the album’s opening track, How Can You Live in the Northeast, but Simon’s vocals are at the center of the song, warm and ironic and just obscure enough to resist easy interpretation. The keyboards are ornamental, but the driving rock rhythm that takes the song home is anything but.

Everything About It Is a Love Song is many songs under one title, watery organ buoying gently plucked electric guitar at the outset, giving way (again) to aggressive percussion and Simon’s angry insistence, "We don’t mean to mess things up / but mess things up we do."

The events of Sept. 11 hang over Surprise like a specter, and more recent events are mentioned, albeit obliquely. They include Hurricane Katrina, our military adventure in Iraq and, oddly, international adoption.

Surprise is hypnotic, its waters warm and inviting. Eno provides the songs with momentum, but also, indirectly, with a kind of holiness. Simon’s melodies are, perhaps, not as accessible as those found on Graceland, but they do, eventually, embed themselves deep inside one’s skull.