Seven Psalms
by Paul Simon

From ExTeaSea 04/04/2024 15:17 | #302849

It's pretty decent. Had potential of being a really cool progressive folk type album or something but was underwhelming..

Paul Simon never fails to surprise us and he's done it again with this beautiful and meditative album. Just one song, in seven movements, it's a rumination on life, aging and death. It's a predominantly acoustic album with discreet instrumentation dropping in here and there alongside Simon's voice that is for the first time starting to betray it's age. But it suits the album perfectly. It really does have a feel of a Swan song and if it is it's the perfect way to bring the curtain down on one of the most brilliant careers in popular music. An exceptional release.

Once again, Paul Simon shows that he is almost peerless as an artist. As he ages, he has not stopped making music that challenges him and his audience. He continues to be creative rather than fall back on tried and true formulas to just keep busy or make money. Who else has put out albums in their 70s and 80s that are as interesting as the music they put out in their 20s? Very few. A case can be made for Willie Nelson and Leonard Cohen. Tom Waits and Nick Cave have stayed interesting in old age. The same cannot be said for the Stones, Elton John, or Paul McCartney (I hate to say it). Maybe not Dylan.

This album is fascinating because it was released on spotify as one track, basically forcing listeners to hear it as a whole and in the artist intended sequence rather than be broken up into singles and separate tracks. The result is a true concept album both musically and lyrically. The theme is mortality as it has been on Simon's last three albums. His voice has lost a step since Stranger to Stranger (2016). It was bound to. But, it has an old man texture that fits the material - like Cash's American Recordings, or John Prine's Tree of Forgiveness (another couple guys who put out great late career/life albums about mortality).