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Paul Simon knows how to tell a story. When he puts his tales to song, his words flow as sweetly as if they’d poured from the lips of a hilltop sage. On his new album, ‘You’re the one’, the singer’s lyrics are masterful as ever, but their emotional punch is compromised considerably by syrupy melodies and uninspired production.

Albums like ‘Graceland’ and ‘Rhythm of the saints’ found Simon looking far overseas for inspiration. On ‘One’ the singer continues to appropriate from distant cultures (he references Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean), but with a lighter touch than he hasshown in the past. It’s a step that takes his music in a more heartfelt direction. ‘One’’s best moments find Simon lassoing exotic riffs and making them his own –he hits some notes here that manage to entrance with all the practiced skill of a Calcutta snake charmer. On ‘The teacher’, he plucks chords that are thick and mystical to craft atune that’s part fable, part augury, carried forward on a swirl of Eastern flutes and strings. And ‘Señorita with a necklace of tears’ achieves some moments of true poignancy, with lyrical guitar strains that shimmer and glisten like dew.

Too often, however, ‘One’’s tunes are stymied by a lightness that neuters their impact. The melodies and production are relentlessly sunny, in a way that fails to adequately serve the complexity of Simon’sclever verse. ‘Old’ is built on a solid lyric, but the tune’s sonics spark little heat, and not even a glint of mood. Instead of stepping into the song and experiencing it fully, Simon chooses to hover at its fringes, fashioning it into a happy-go-lucky sing-a-long ditty that all but annihilates its potency. And ‘Darling Lorraine’ could have been a love song for the ages, but is ultimately foiled by Muzak-lite production. The end result is a million shades blander than what could have been.

‘One’ is a pleasant enough listen –its chords are bright and happy as a Kenyan afternoon. But it fails to connect as deeply as it should, given the material’s potential and the undeniable talent of the man who created it.