Paul Simon

You're the One

Heard Here Rating:
"Four Kings of Metal are Four Metal Kings, and they proclaim that this album rocks! It will kill you! You cannot resist its power!"

Come awake, come alive: You're the One is wise, smooth and beautiful.

At 53 Paul Simon can go around the block and still believe in God. He can laugh at love and still fall in it, look at death with open eyes and still taste life. He can be simple but subtle, polished and still raw. He has re-birthed himself once more, and the world he reveals is a tasty array of wry wisdom and raw beauty.

In all regards, his musical blend has never been more in tune. Steve Gadd, Jamey Haddad and Steve Shehem coordinate a percussion section that lays down a seamless stream of deep, well-blended rhythms, providing a ceaseless line of sensuous touches. The world is colored and filled with the sounds of artists including Steve Gorn on a range of flutes, Skip La Plante on a slew of home-made instruments and Bakithi Kumalo on bass. Simon dedicates his hands to his afro-pop-influenced guitars. And of course, he sings so nice....

Every cut combines entirely different feels, creating the tactile experience of a well-woven quilt as snow falls in the early calm of morning. The album opens with Gorn's bamboo flute and Jay Elfenbain's vielle, and the soft touch of Vincent Nguini's clean electric guitar layers over imploring cries from Alain Mallet's Wurltizer as Simon tells us that "Somewhere in a burst of glory/Sound becomes a song/I'm bound to tell a story/And that's where I belong."

In "The Teacher," percussion is layered with shekere, conga, tambourine and some hip triangle touches, as Howard Levy pounds out an accordion-like richness through his harmonica and the poet cries "Carry me home my teacher/Carry me home."

The album runs deep enough to talk about age and death and love and happiness, but is still fringed with humor. Somehow, after all these years, Simon can afford to not take himself too seriously. In "Old," he says, "First time I smoked, guess what? Paranoid/And all my friends stand up and cheer and say 'man, you're old.'" He later says, "Wisdom is old, the Bible's old/The greatest story every told. Disagreements? Work 'em out."

In 44 minutes, Simon tells the stories of ex-lovers, death, wisdom, inspiration and politics. He ends with "Quiet," a meditative meld of pump-reed organ, vihuela, 96-tone harp, whirly-pipe, acoustic bass and tromba doo. He sings, "I am heading for a time of quiet/When my restlessness is past/And I can lay down on my blanket and release my fists at last/I am heading for a time of solitude, of peace without illusions/When the perfect circle marries all beginnings and conclusions."

You're the One is a truth of our time, and it is to be heard.