By Benjamin Hedin
Hat Flat
Paul Simon's pop career has covered every facet of critical and popular opinion, from earth-shattering successes such as "The Concert in Central Park" and "Graceland" to disastrous flops like "One Trick Pony" and the 1997 soundtrack to his musical "The Capeman." It is following the latter category that Simon arrives with his new album, "You're the One," released Oct. 3. Backed by a band comprised of alumni from his recent tour with Bob Dylan, Simon delivers 11 new songs that combine to make an exceedingly pleasing listening experience.
The first tune on the album, "That's Where I Belong," is a
beautifully resigned look at the manifestation of Simon's destiny over the
years, with a sweet blending of electric guitars, bamboo flute, clarinet and
piano. The bridge to the next song, "Darling Lorraine," is a perfect example of
Simon's musical intelligence, as the modulation to the relative major key and
new guitar texture underscore the rebellious revelation of the lyrics.
The record's first single, "Old," is a self-parody of Simon's venerability, indebted musically to his beloved '50s rock traditions. "The Teacher," a very provocative song with an overriding Western African sound, explores the necessities of spiritual pedagogy.
Two acoustic gems, "Senorita with a Necklace of Tears" and "Love," complement each other nicely on the second half of the album. Both contain some of Simon's best acoustic guitar work in years.
This is one of the most surprising parts of "You're the One": long troubled by calcium deposits in his left hand, Simon's guitar ability has corroded since the early '80s, forcing him to become more reliant on session musicians. The album's final song, "Quiet," connotes death in the opening lines, "I am heading for a time of quiet/ when my restlessness is past/ and I can lie down on my blanket/ and release my fists at last," closing the album on a note of wistful tranquility.
All in all, the album is at its finest in the music, Simon and his band creating subtle and sonorous harmonies of penetrating resonance. Anchoring this lush sound is Simon's trademark genius, his ability to create melodies of consummate beauty and effortlessness.
Simon has always had a reputation for being a meticulous workaholic; he has taken an abnormally long time span that one has to endure between the release of a new album as well as the fact that it takes him up to a year to write a single song. However, Simon has confessed that this album was not as laborious in its creation as other ones. Unfortunately, this efficiency comes at the expense of the quality of the album's lyrics.
Though it has been an era or so since Simon offered blank verse depictions of a decayed American dream, such as in "America" or a religious allegorical narrative, like "Hearts and Bones," his lyrics have generally been strong through the ages. Many of the lyrics on "You're the One," however, are quite juvenile. In "Darling Lorraine," Simon writes, "she's so hot/ she's so cool/ I'm not/ I'm only a fool in love with Darling Lorraine." These are the kinds of lyrical banalities Simon has avoided in the past.
Though there are many new love songs on "You're the One," there are also a few political songs that bear a "Capeman" influence. "Pigs, Sheep and Wolves" finds Simon denouncing a society and court system that victimizes minorities as well as a media that feeds off of their tragedy. In "Old" Simon curtly instructs members of organized religion to compromise their conflicting values in order to avoid repeating past feuds and genocide, "disagreements?/ work 'em out."
"You're the One" is a departure from Simon's previous three albums, for he is not deliberately exploring a new genre of world music to augment his songwriting skills. Given the critical crucifixion he suffered for "The Capeman," Simon obviously could not afford to produce another radical and culturally loaded album. In this sense, the failure of "The Capeman" acts as a mixed blessing since it forced him to write on his own for the first time in 15 years.
Simon's forays into jazz, West African, Brazilian and Latin music have finally been internalized and assimilated with his folk and rock roots. The resultant album is in many ways an amalgamation of the many sides of his musical career since Simon and Garfunkel split. This familiarity of numerous musical idioms prevents "You're the One" from becoming mundane in comparison to "Graceland" or "The Rhythm of the Saints." It is nice to see that he does not have to be experimental to be incredible.
In today's popular music world of commercialized teeny-bop and superficial, postmodern rock 'n' roll, any new material from Simon is something to applaud. "You're the One," however, succeeds on its own, certainly as one of the best albums of 2000 in addition to offering a necessary alternative to the currently static music industry. It stands as a novel and worthy addition to the canon of one of America's greatest living songwriters.