(As published in the Times of Acadiana ... )
Paul Simon
You’re the One
(Warner Bros.)
Simon rebounded from his 1981 film debacle One Trick Pony with 1983’s Hearts and Bones, an exquisitely wrought examination of love and romance inspired by his short-lived marriage to Carrie Fisher. Now he rebounds from his 1997 stage debacle The Capeman with an exquisitely wrought examination of love and romance inspired by his current marriage to Edie Brickell. With all due respect to Mrs. Brickell-Simon, the songs inspired by Mrs. Fisher-Simon have more humor, sharper lyrics, and better hooks. I also note that at fifty-nine Simon no longer sings with his eternally youthful charm, leaving the song called “Old” the sole beneficiary of the change. Not that “Darling Lorraine” isn’t hummable (it is) or that the others don’t make aging gracefully seem possible or desirable (they do, though seldom both). It’s just that what unifies this album is less a willingness to accept what one cannot change than a feeling of embitteredness rooted in the assumption that in a just world no one would ever grow old and die. Rating: Three dangling conversations out of five.
Paul Simon
You’re the One
(Warner Bros.)
Simon rebounded from his 1981 film debacle One Trick Pony with 1983’s Hearts and Bones, an exquisitely wrought examination of love and romance inspired by his short-lived marriage to Carrie Fisher. Now he rebounds from his 1997 stage debacle The Capeman with an exquisitely wrought examination of love and romance inspired by his current marriage to Edie Brickell. With all due respect to Mrs. Brickell-Simon, the songs inspired by Mrs. Fisher-Simon have more humor, sharper lyrics, and better hooks. I also note that at fifty-nine Simon no longer sings with his eternally youthful charm, leaving the song called “Old” the sole beneficiary of the change. Not that “Darling Lorraine” isn’t hummable (it is) or that the others don’t make aging gracefully seem possible or desirable (they do, though seldom both). It’s just that what unifies this album is less a willingness to accept what one cannot change than a feeling of embitteredness rooted in the assumption that in a just world no one would ever grow old and die. Rating: Three dangling conversations out of five.
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