It’s a new album for the 81-year-old artist, and probably his last. More on why I say that below. TLDR: It’s great; get it.
The album is almost a solo performance—there is no band behind him, but there are some supporting musicians and on two tracks his wife Edie Brickell adds her voice.
Three of the album’s seven tracks are titled The Lord. The album is about Death. Or maybe, about our experience anticipating death. Can you do that without being morbid? I can’t; Paul can. He is forceful, insistent, funny; he is all that without being at all disrespectful of any person’s faith or any person’s atheism. As you consider how to navigate like that—hey, that’s a big part of why I say it’s great. Plus, he still has acoustic guitar chops, and his voice does not let us down.
Simon asks us to listen to his album in the order he constructed it. (There are no tries for hit singles here.) My computer shows the seven songs on the CD as a single track, about 33 minutes long. I won’t mess with that wish by talking about individual songs or lyrics.
The reason I say “probably his last” may be clear now. There isn’t much to offer as an encore, once we have talked about our own passing. I hope he has another decade or two to say, Of course not! when people ask him for new stuff.