Paul Simon said in 2016 after the release of “Stranger To Stranger” that he no longer wanted to write any new songs. He wanted to see where his creative energy would go if he wasn’t putting it into song form. In the middle of his eighth decade, the agnostic Simon secretly hoped that with this trick something like meaning would still appear on the home stretch of his life.
Simon didn’t find God, but he started thinking about him
It was a dream that led him back to music. In January 2019, on the 24th anniversary of the death of his father, Louis, he woke up from a dream in which he was working on an album entitled Seven Psalms. In the months that followed, he regularly woke up at night with lines of text in his head, he later explained. He put them together into seven songs. He ended the last one exactly one year to the day after the first inspiration.
So, like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, Simon has become a psalmist, emulating the biblical King David who sang hymns to God on his harp. “The Lord is my engineer/ The Lord is the Earth I ride/ The Lord is the face in the atmosphere/ The path that I slip and I slide on,” he sings in the leitmotif of this half-hour suite. Of course you have to listen to the old hit: “You know the nearer your destination/ The more you’re slip slidin’ away.” Simon hasn’t found God, but he has started to think about him.
“Seven Psalms” is a journey of the soul, an inner dialogue, a search movement, a book with seven seals. Simon gives Antonius Block; the present – the virus, the refugees, the rising sea levels – is passing like a biblical plague. The music meanders and flows, gongs and bells, drones and flutes expand Simon’s acoustic guitar into transcendence. “Seven Psalms” is more Debussy than Doo Wop. “Children, get ready/ It’s time to come home,” sings Simon’s wife, Edie Brickell, at the end. The couple intones the last word together: “Amen.”
SIMILAR REVIEWS
The Milk Carton Kids :: “I Only See The Moon” – realignment
The duo tries a lot and remains a fixed star in the folk sky.
Parker Millsap :: Wilderness Within You
Diversity does not have to fall into individual parts.
John Southworth :: “When You’re This, This In Love” – curtains up
A magical night music about the nature of love
SIMILAR ARTICLES
Nick Cave Gives Bad Seeds Album Update: “I’ll be back in the studio today”
Nick Cave finds: “So far the tracks sound great”.
Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde: Manic Brilliance
Bob Dylan’s masterpiece “Blonde On Blonde” was voted one of ROLLING STONE’s top ten greatest albums of all time. The singer then delivered some of his most soulful, raw songs about happiness and desire.
23 grandiose rock music album openers that will give you goosebumps
ROLLING STONE has compiled 23 of the best album opening tracks. Featuring Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, Oasis, White Stripes, Neil Young and a few surprises.