You're The One (studio album) by Paul Simon

From llibnanoon 06/02/2020 12:47

Meh!

From RoundTheBend 05/30/2016 04:06

I grew up on Paul Simon and my pottery teacher was listening to this during a class one day and I immediately recognized it as Paul Simon, but it was something new. Probably 6 months later I bought it, and probably have since listened to it over 100 times.

It's been a while since I have listened to it, and get why people wouldn't love it. It's a silent peaceful record and some might think it's easy listening or music for old people. I still think it is a very solid album, and Paul's best since Graceland.

By the way, I was the only one who had this charted at 53... haha.

Coming three years after his commercial flop, songs from the capeman musical and album(which I thought was fantastic), you're the one, comes as a bit of a disappointment, at least to me. There's some good stuff here, as there always will be on a Paul Simon record, but there's some weak tracks here too. The weakest has got to be the title track, it's one of the most boring songs Simon has ever wrote. Old, is okay, and, that's where I belong, is a nice opener, but, darling Lorraine, is easily the best on the first half of the album, Simon is always brilliant at that kind of ordinary middle aged domesticity. After the dull title track, things pick up a bit with, look at that, it has a slight feel of Graceland to it, with some great textures and grooves. Senorita, and, love, are nice enough with some nice lyrics, and, pigs, sheep, and wolves, is amusing, though, hurricane eye, is much better, possibly the album's best track? . Quiet, ends the record, on a, well, quiet note. You're the one, is far from a bad album, but I personally think it's possibly his weakest, maybe along with, one trick pony. Simon just doesn't sound inspired on some of the tracks. Still, it is Paul Simon, so it's not going to be bad, but I find it a bit disappointing, but having said that, I still enjoy listening to it.

I got this album when it came out in 2000. I was already a Paul Simon fan through my dad, and I fell in love with this album pretty hard. That basically meant listening to it alone in my room for a good stretch. I've come back to it many times and always thought it was great.

I felt like it didn't get too much love from either fans or critics for some reason. Now on this site I see how true that is. A whopping ONE PERSON besides me has this on their Top overall list ( way down at 53)! So I feel compelled to write a review as seemingly the album's biggest fan :(

I do feel like there's something wrong with me for being the only person to put this high up on their list. But for this review I'm going to defend my #16 ranking, and make the case that every other chart maker here and critic is just missing it ;-)

It's clear on this album that Paul is getting away from the world themes that were so distinctive of his last two records -- kind of, but not totally. These themes are still there, though more often as an added dimension instead of the central feature of a song. So Paul is able to get back to his roots on this release, while still incrporating much of the sound that made his last albums special.

So it should be clear that this is mostly a mellow album. The manic riffs and high intensity jams so integral to the "Graceland" / "Rhythm of Saints" era are mostly stripped here. Instead there is a quiet beauty that permeates this album, with lyrics that serve to carry out this sentiment, and often little else.

edit: I'll briefly review each song in the song section. It's mostly an album that can be appreciated from start to finish without any real lulls.

Whoo. I put wayyyy more time into that than I had intended. I hope you find it useful or interesting, 5 people! :)

From drivebytornado 03/02/2013 01:45

This is Paul Simon's comeback album after the dreadful "Songs from The Capeman." He should have left off "Pigs, Sheep and Wolves" and made it an even 10 songs. Overall its a nice album, not close to his better albums, but it has a nice sound and some interesting songs, such as "Darling Lorraine" and "Senorita with a Necklace of Tears."