Rather than resting on his laurels, sitting on a rather plump and healthy back-catalogue, Paul Simon at the age of 74 is still experimenting - tinkering with new instruments, collaborating with contemporary musicians and most importantly, remains a student of music.
New album ‘Stranger To Stranger’ is testament of that - it’s succinct, deeply layered, deeply rhythmic and crammed with ideas.
The songwriter has been travelling and meeting people from all over the globe in recent years, who have oiled the cogs of the latest album. Such as in ‘Proof Of Love’, inspired by a visit to a healer in Brazil. “I was suffering from reoccurring violent nightmares, I stayed the night at a place called the Casa where this healer lived," he tells us at an exclusive album playback and Q&A, "I was asked to play a song so I walked around the Casa playing ‘The Sound of Silence’ whenever I went near the people they began weeping.”
Later in the album, ‘The Riverbank’ feeds off the experience of visiting a hospital for War Veterans in Boston, and playing at the funeral of an acquaintance who was killed in the Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012.
Simon has also been experimenting with instruments which have never been heard by the masses before. “The composer Harry Partch believed there were 43 tones instead of the 12 notes in European scales and had to build these instruments to reach them,” he reveals. These instruments which create microtonal music pop up throughout the 11 tracks.
Here’s what we thought of the ‘Stranger To Stranger’ track-by-track.
'The Werewolf'
The album kicks off deeply ingrained in rhythm, with beats provided here by Italian musician Clap! Clap! Simon rattles out a colloquial vocal where he drops in jokes and observations shrouded by death including characters who are “buying and searching for a semi-decent afterlife” before proclaiming “the werewolf is coming”. Sloping grooves and pedigree prowling backing vocals are peppered throughout. Brass lifts the track towards the end whilst a horror movie organ allows ‘The Werewolf’ to live up to its spooky title.
'Wristband'
You’ll know this one by now. A wondering double bass line allows the track to strut with a swagger, whilst Simon tells the story of trying to liaise with a bouncer – “a well-dressed 6’8” in order to gain entrance to his own gig. Again that colloquial vocal resurfaces which allows the story to flow without the boundaries of a strict melody – perhaps an attempt at Partch’s semitonic method.
'The Clock'
The first of two instrumentals which were originally set to feature in a play by John Patrick Shanley called ‘The Prodigal Son’. It begins with a solitary ticking of a clock before guitar strikes enter resembling a chime. It’s almost like a sleep chant and manages to envelops you, despite its short running time.
'Street Angel'
Paul Simon allows his innate knack for melody to shine here, the track is instantaneous and doesn’t wait around to get going. Warbling beats once again provided by Clap! Clap! are intertwined with an incoherent vocal loop which is sampled from Simon’s favourite choral groups The Golden Gate Quartet and played in reverse. He takes a nod at his songwriter stature in the midst of an incredibly infectious melody - “I make my verse for the universe and my rhyme for the universities”.
'Stranger to Stranger'
The title track is a spooky centrepiece featuring a flamenco spirit at the base of its rhythm section. Spidery guitar lines rattle over chugging strings which loom as Simon questions “can you imagine us falling in love again?” to his subject matter. It has many juxtaposing atmospheres, it somehow manages to be groove based whilst being sparse simultaneously which reflects the message of the song – “it’s about the nerves which comes with happiness”.
'In A Parade'
After the centrepiece comes a snappy rhythmic gem which drops you right in the middle of a carnival atmosphere. The song seems to stem from an interrupted phone call, brass parts and colourful instrumentals pass you by as he speaks on the phone – “I can’t talk now I’m in a parade”.
'Proof of Love'
This is the tune inspired by his experience with the healer and is comprised of several shifts throughout. A gliding guitar is intertwined with a pitter-patter brush drumbeat which creates a somewhat spinning effect. Frantic flute-play is peppered in various intervals, the electric guitar is vamped up in one of the sections before a beautiful lilt of vocal harmonies lead the song to its conclusion.
'In The Garden of Edie'
This is the second instrumental. Acoustic guitar is set to a sparse backdrop in this ode to his wife, guitar harmonics are playfully used like a run of the harp whilst the flamenco rhythm makes a return towards the end.
'The Riverbank'
A guitar is interlocked with the rhythm in the source of this track, however changes in pace and mood linger around every sonic turn. It contains a spooky midsection which sees the band drift and reappear intertwined once more, strings drift over a section led by the rhythm before it disperses into an atmospheric change which sees Simon talking of heavenly imagery – namely, “a triangle of white light in the sky”.
'Cool Papa Bell'
A skipping African guitar line lies at the heart of the penultimate track and runs most closely to the sound of Graceland. It sees Simon dropping his humble personality and taking on the character of the ‘Cool Papa Bell’ – he orders the listener to “check out my tattoo” before calling somebody a “motherfucking filthy rat”.
'Insomniac’s Lullaby'
The closing track features the use of the instruments created by Harry Partch called the Cloud-Chamber Bowls and Harmonic Canon. Simon came up with the title first and found its perfect instrumental accomplice upon hearing the slightly uncomfortable feeling that comes with listening to semitonic music. It rings out like a lullaby with a pretty sinister undertone.
Stranger To Stranger is released on 3 June.
Paul Simon's full upcoming tour dates are below, with tickets on sale from 9am on Friday 20 May. For tickets and more information, visit here.
Thursday 3 November: Bournemouth BIC
Friday 4 November: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Monday 7 November: London Royal Albert Hall
Tuesday 8 November: London Royal Albert Hall
Thursday 10 November: Manchester O2 Apollo
Saturday 12 November: Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
