Paul Simon - Stranger To Stranger, album review: Ruminations on inequality wrapped in a joyous album

Few songwriters can juggle seriousness and whimsy as adeptly as Paul Simon

Paul Simon's musical experiments pay off, with ‘Stranger to Stranger’ one of his best albums in several years

Download this: The Werewolf; Wristband; Stranger To Stranger; Cool Papa Bell

Few songwriters can juggle seriousness and whimsy as adeptly as Paul Simon on Stranger To Stranger, his best album in several years. The irony is, however, that these songs were born from musical experiments rather than lyrical rigour, with Simon and his long-time producer Roy Halee exploring textural ideas which spread out to include flamenco percussionists, the Italian EDM artist Clap! Clap!, and the custom-built instruments of outsider monophonist Harry Partch, notably the resonant glass Cloud-Chamber Bowls and 43-tone Chromelodeon.

The result is a febrile, gently vivacious series of rhythm-beds stippled with twangs, trumpet and treated samples, such as the howling wolf that closes the opening track “The Werewolf”, an understated but energetic bricolage over which Simon nonchalantly considers the unbearable inequity of life. It’s a cunning mix of empathy and apathy, haunted by the looming prospect of the predatory werewolf. “The fact is, most obits are mixed reviews,” he observes, “Life is a lottery a lot of people lose.”

“Wristband” continues his ruminations on inequality, its cool jazz-bass lope using the quandary of a performer barred backstage re-entry by lack of wristband as the springboard for a wider reflection on exclusivity afflicting ordinary folk. Frisky percussion animates the ebullient “In A Parade”, while the springy bonhomie of “Cool Papa Bell” revives memories of Graceland; but it’s the languid rowboat rhythm of the title-track, with its gentle vibrato tremor and muted trumpet, which sets the more hyperactive tracks in perspective. “I’m just jittery,” he explains, “It’s just the way I’m dealing with my joy.” And it’s the right way, by the sound of things.

Virgin EMI