PAUL
SIMON Stranger to Stranger hails from 2016 and is a CD that’s comes
with an exclusive promo sketchbook.
"The Werewolf" opens Stranger to Stranger, Paul Simon's
thirteenth solo studio album, with a heavy rhythmic thud -- bass, drums, and
maracas lumbering along in a modified Bo Diddley beat not a far cry from the
Who's "Slip Kid." Simon isn't looking to the past, though: he's
writing toward an inevitable sunset, mindful of mortality -- just like he was
on 2011's So Beautiful or So What -- but he's firmly grounded in a tumultuous
present, embracing all the cut-and-paste contradictions endemic to the digital
age. With the exception of a pair of hushed acoustic numbers and the expansive
title track, all positioned to provide necessary pressure relief from the
density of the rest of the record, Stranger to Stranger feels built from the
rhythm up, a tactic familiar to Simon since 1986's Graceland. Unlike the easy
gait of Graceland, the words here are clipped and rushed, sliding in with the
bustle of the rhythm. It's not that the songs aren't melodic -- hooks arrive in
snatches, sometimes forming through the rhythms themselves -- but the tracks
are cloistered and colorful, accentuated by traces of gospel and doo wop;
there's even an apparent "Love Is Strange" sample. Echoes of tradition
existing within this modern framework are telling, underscoring how Simon is
making music where the past is ever-present but not consuming: he's shifted his
aesthetic to mirror his times, a tactic common in his solo career. In many
ways, Stranger to Stranger is as bracing and ambitious as Surprise, his 2006
collaboration with producer Brian Eno -- this is especially true of its opening
triptych, all created with Italian dance musician Clap! Clap! -- but the tenor
of this album is different. Where the specter of 9/11 hung heavily over
Surprise, Simon seems at peace on Stranger to Stranger, acknowledging the
twilight yet not running toward it because there's so much to experience in the
moment. He's choosing to push forward, not look back, and the results are
invigorating.
1.
The Werewolf
2. Wristband
3. The Clock
4. Street Angel
5. Stranger to Stranger
6. In a Parade
7. Proof of Love
8. In the Garden of Edie
9. The Riverbank
10. Cool Papa Bell
11. Insomniac's Lullaby