accessAtlanta

Paul Simon
"Surprise." Warner Bros. 11 tracks.
Grade: B+

Kudos to the person who had the bright idea to put Brian Eno and Paul Simon together.

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Eccentric sound manipulator Eno is credited with providing the "sonic landscape," and it sounds just like you'd think it would from that designation. It's not just the subtle electronics Eno adds, but the intangible atmosphere he wraps around Simon's thoughtful new songs. They add a new dimension to the work of a man who could be coasting.

Simon's songs are less concerned with hooks and choruses than ever before. They're beautiful, but in a much less immediate way. Nothing sounds like a single, but that doesn't seem like something a venerable songwriting genius should be concerned with anyway. In fact, the album works best as a whole, a water-and-weather-infused meditation on life during wartime, fatherhood, spirituality and Simon's own back pages (on the biographical "That's Me").

"Once upon a time there was an ocean," Simon sings in the song of that title, "But now it's a mountain range." A distorted synthetic pulse kicks in, and Simon sounds undeniably modern and relevant without taking an embarrassing tumble into trendiness.

He's always recognizable as the man who wrote "I Am a Rock" and "The Sound of Silence." The song ends with the line "nothing is different, but everything's changed."

That seems like a perfect description of Simon's new album.

— Shane Harrison

ALSO OUT: Nick Lachey, "What's Left of Me"; The Isley Brothers, "Baby Makin' Music"; Teena Marie, "Sapphire"; Snow Patrol, "Eyes Open"; Jolie Holland, "Springtime Can Kill You"; The Stills, "Without Feathers"; Rasheeda, "Georgia Peach"; Keith "Wonderboy" Johnson & The Spiritual Voices, "Just Being Me."