In the fall of 2004 I was laid up for weeks in the hospital with an ugly infection that I spent most of a year recovering from. For a couple of days, it seemed like a distinct possibility that I wouldn't survive. At the time though, I didn't care so much because I was suffering enough that I could have taken it or left it at that moment. But if I had died in 2004, I would never have gotten to hear Paul Simon's new Surprise album. This album's good enough that it has occurred to me to be glad that I've lived long enough to hear it.
I've been listening to this album for a month now - and fretting over what to say about it. I fear that I lack the skill to communicate just how good this album is. So then, I'll make just a few general notes on this new masterwork - hopefully enough to convince you of the imperative of owning this beautiful artifact.
For starters, this album pretty much completely abandons the whole world music approach, the phenomenon sprang most obviously from Simon's 1986 Graceland album. Instead, his primary collaborator here is Brian Eno - another older, white Western intellectual type. The credits list Paul Simon as producer, and Eno for "Sonic Landscape." He is also specifically credited as co-writer of three songs. This is the best work I've heard from Brian Eno, largely because it's the best batch of songs he's ever had to work with - with all due respect to David Byrne.
The opening track especially has some particularly choice Eno electronic atmospherics. "How Can You Live in the Northeast?" starts with a dark, statical throb, as Paul works up a lament for the distrust and hatefulness that he sees tearing up the country in the immigrant's dreams within which he frames the song. I think he might be a bit too pessimistic in that regard. Still, when the guitars come crashing back from the break in the last minute, they've generated a wave that'd put some puny Pearl Jam record absolutely to shame; I'd particularly recommend looking for the Saturday Night Live performance.
But besides being a better modern rock guitar band than Pearl Jam, Paul Simon is also arguably funkier than Snoop Dogg. He's not billing himself as "funk" at all, but on the basis of "Outrageous" and "Sure Don't Feel Like Love," Simon can apply some hard, tight urban rhythms just as good as Mr. Broadus ever thought about — except that, of course, Simon's attaching those funky beats to real songs.
Article comments
1 - Michael J. West
Really? Eno's best work including his own albums? Hot damn.
2 - Al Barger
In fairness, I haven't heard ALL of Eno's albums- or any of them in some years. None of his own albums have made much impression on me. I remember a couple of album titles, but I couldn't name you any particular songs from them. I might go back to some of them again after steeping in Surprise and get more out of them.
3 - Michael J. West
In equal fairness, a whole lot of 'em weren't about songs per se--they were more like laboratory experiments with the nature of sound. But some of them were truly gorgeous and fascinating, and when he DID do songs they tended to be damned impressive.
But anyway, i'll get on the Paul Simon. Thanks for the review, Mr. Barger, sir.
4 - Al Barger
Laboratory experiments with the nature of sound are well and fine, but they're just academic exercises if they don't have a memorable composition under them, whether it be a song or a symphony or what not. But here you get all those fancy Eno tricks attached to major-league songwriting.
I predict you'll be more than well-pleased with Surprise. I note also that some of this sounds really good rolling down the country highways in the night, particularly the crashing guitars of "How Can You Live in the Northeast?"
5 - Peter H
Give "Hearts and Bones" a try Al. It's "Surprise" without the electronics. Commercially, it was a disaster but musically it as revered as a Paul Simon masterpiece. I loved your review by the way. It expressed what I wanted to say, just in a much better way.
6 - Al Barger
Howdy Peter. Thanks for your kind words.
I'm actually a long-time advocate of Hearts and Bones. I've got an essay specifically about "Johnny Ace" My favorites on the album though are probably the two "Think Too Much" songs.
7 - Peter H
Glad you've heard H&B Al. I'm currently listening to "Surprise" and it dawned on me as to how good some of the lyrics are. As an example "When your eyes are blind with tears but your heart can see, another life, another galaxy". Such simple, yet powerful words! What are your thoughts on "Living With War"?
8 - Al Barger
The Neil Young album strikes me generally as about an average half-assed Neil Young thing, where he slings out the generic blues licks he could play in his sleep, and expects thus to get credit for rawness and immediacy when it's mostly just laziness.
Did you see the Saturday Night Live setup with Kevin Spacey cast as Neil Young advertising the Living with War? "SUBTLE" was the featured text. "What did you have for breakfast Mr President, a big plateful of LIES? And did you wash it down with a nice cold glass of LIES???" And I won't sully a thread on the sainted Paul Simon by mentioning the she-devils who were backing Spacey-as-Neil.
9 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Hearts and Bones, though inconsistant, has three of the best songs Simon ever wrote (S&G and Graceland included): the title song, "Train in the Distance," and "Rene and Georgette Magritte..."
10 - Tom Johnson
Surprise is very reminiscent of the album Eno did with John Cale in 1990, Wrong Way Up. Very similar sound and style. I would never have pegged Surprise as a Paul Simon album had I not seen the artist - I would have assumed it was an Eno album with Simon doing vocals.
Comment #4, from Al: Eno's pop contributions (his first four solo albums) are absolute classics. Don't judge his music solely on his ambient creations, which I can't blame a person for not liking. Those first four solo albums of his are some of the most inventive, creative, and fun pop albums of all time. People are still copying things he did on those 30 year old albums. Just because his lyrics aren't delivering some deep message doesn't mean he's not saying something.
11 - Barry
I liked your review very much...Not much said though from reviews in general about how spiritual Surprise is...at least to me , at least during this spiritual time of my 49th year. As a 50th birthday present, I'm becoming a Paul Simon roadie during his Ohio concerts (is he playing 3 times there because that is where the '04 election was stolen?)and maybe onto Cooperstown, tho that is a far ride from home in Chicago. Yet there is something about being with him on the 4th of July this year that seems especially cool, given the first Surprise song.
12 - Martin Rinehart
Great review, but you missed a bit.
It's "God will, like he waters the flowers on your window sill." The window sill, of course, is indoors. Whether Simon is religious is an open question, but the character in "Outrageous" here is saying that "God won't."
Please visit www.CrackingTheSimonCode.blogspot.com and help figure all this stuff out. Outrageous is cracked. We know how "painting my hair the color of mud" and "Who's gonna love you ...? God will..." all work together. But some brilliant insights are still needed on four tracks, including "I Don't Believe" which, if cracked, might reveal Simon's position on God. (Possibly "Maybe"? "Maybe and maybe and maybe some more. Maybe's the exit that I'm looking for.")
13 - Al Barger
Hey Martin, I dig your "cracking the code" page. Good effort.
14 - james
Why can't he be talking about a flower box on the windowsill, outside? That makes as much sense as inside to me, so that really is confusing. Just like on "American Tune", he sings "you can't be forever blessed"... I imagine to a lot of listeners they think he is saying "you can be forever blessed"! So it really confuses his messages about faith and god etc.
15 - Al Barger
For those arriving late, James refers to lyrics from the song "Outrageous."
However, I'm not sure what the confusion is. That's a pretty simple, straightforward lyrical point. Even when you're old and gray, God will give you love like he gives rain water to the little flowers. Flowers inside your home wouldn't make sense here, since the point is rain.