A- Paul Simon
In the Blue Light
Legacy
The concept is intriguing, with Paul Simon reimagining 10 songs he released between 1973 and 2011. They're songs he felt were overlooked or that he didn't get quite right the first time.
The revisits speak to the musical adventurousness that has marked Simon's later years. Many of the originals were grounded in the folk-rock style he was primarily known for. Now Simon moves beyond: Wynton Marsalis' trumpet replaces the acoustic guitar on "How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns" and the 1970s electric piano gives way to Sullivan Fortner's real thing on "Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy." The jauntiness of "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor" is smoothed into a loping, jazz feel. With Dixieland jazz, Spanish-style guitar and orchestral arrangements, the music is worldly and complex.
Simon rewrites some lyrics, some to subtly modernize. Most affecting is a rewritten conclusion to 2000's "Love," which is more specific and universal.
Simon, 76, gives the material a grace not always present the first time. A song like "Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy" feels lived in. "Darling Lorraine" is the new album's centerpiece because you can feel the tenderness, comedy and sadness more acutely. Being placed at the end of an album where a central theme is the passage of time lends "Questions for the Angels" poignancy.
In the Blue Light is neither nostalgia nor a rescue mission. It's a challenging new work.
Hot tracks: "Darling Lorraine,'' ''One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor," "Love"
-- DAVID BAUDER
The Associated Press
B Paul McCartney
Egypt Station
Capitol
"Fuh You," for all its juvenile smarm and innuendo, might be what gets listeners in the door but it's nowhere close to the best thing on Paul McCartney's latest.
Egypt Station shows he can still break sonic ground and unearth gems six decades into his career.
"I Don't Know" is classic McCartney, with stately piano, Beatlesque drums and melodic bass. Lyrically he trades his trademark optimism for regret and rumination: "I've got so many lessons to learn/What am I doing wrong? I don't know."
"Happy With You" offers "Blackbird"-style finger-picking and foot-tapping. In the open, folky expanse of "Confidante," he sings, "In our imaginary world where butterflies wear army boots and stomp around the forest chanting long-lost anthems." It's a callback to his fallen, former bandmate John Lennon.
"Do It Now" has regal keyboards, major-minor modulations, countermelodies and a sweet McCartney choir. It is accessible and experimental. It offers a lyric about what drives him at age 76: "Do it now while the vision is clear, do it now while the feeling is here. If you leave it too late it could all disappear."
"Despite Repeated Warnings" is the album's opus: The cautionary tale -- about a captain who has his own agenda and ignores the will of his people -- begins majestically, then out of nowhere comes a sonic shift. Driving rock, guitars and soulful horns call to mind his mid-'70s best.
Egypt Station proves McCartney can take some risks, capitalize on his strengths and, at times, rival his strongest solo work.
Hot tracks: "Despite Repeated Warnings," "Do It Now," "Confidante"
-- JEFF KAROUB
The Associated Press
SINGLES
• Lee Brice, "Rumor": This is a blues-inflected ballad from Brice, one of the least flashy country singers of recent years. The come-on here is slow and earnest -- people are already talking, so let's really give them something to talk about. He's not an aggressive salesman, and perhaps that's why he's so effective: He sounds like he's celebrating something that has already happened, not that he's yearning for. Also, if you're keeping score in country's ongoing hat-switch game, in the video for this song, Brice doesn't wear a cowboy hat or a baseball cap, but rather, a fedora.
-- JON CARAMANICA
The New York Times
• Hozier featuring Mavis Staples, "Nina Cried Power": Here's humility coupled with mass-market access. Hozier, an Irish songwriter with the Top 10 knack, wants listeners to know where he learned how to couple a message with a gospelly beat, organ chords and a choir: "It is the heaven of the human spirit ringing." He name-checks Nina (Simone), Billie (Holiday), James Brown, Woody (Guthrie), (Bob) Dylan and Mavis (Staples) -- who joins him -- among others, riding a backbeat and his own conviction.
-- JON PARELES
The New York Times
• Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers, "Apocalypse Now (& Later)": It's the end of the world as we know it, and Laura Jane Grace feels fantastic. The Against Me! singer, guitarist and songwriter debuts her side project featuring bassist Marc Jacob Hudson and drummer Atom Willard with a bit of cheery folk-pop-punk about an uncheerful topic: "On top of the world, at the end of the world, with you."
-- CARYN GANZ
The New York Times
• Thom Yorke, "Suspirium": "This is a waltz thinking about our bodies," Yorke sings in "Suspirium," which joins the long list of his sweetly chilling piano ballads. It's from his score to Luca Guadagnino's forthcoming remake of Suspiria, the 1977 Dario Argento horror movie set in a dance school. Much of it is just his voice and an arpeggiated piano motif that's dainty and relentless; organ tones and a flute join him. "All is well, as long as we keep spinning," he intones, calmly raising the question of what happens when the spinning ends.
-- JON PARELES
The New York Times
Style on 09/18/2018