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One of those begins “How Can You Live In The Northeast?”, which opens the album with zero subtlety, touching on a world at war and floods overcoming levees. “Everything About It Is A Love Song” takes a journey through multiple textures, always coming back the most simple guitar figure. “Outrageous” is the first most overt attempt to sound modern, sung in one of his character voices, but the “who’s gonna love you when your looks are gone” hook still works. Not as successful is “Sure Don’t Feel Like Love”, which seems more like the Eno approach of using whatever words fit the rhythm at hand. The powerful “Wartime Prayers” starts out just lovely, with nice atmospherics and gentle guitar, but as it’s designed to be an anthem, the heavy drums distract from Herbie Hancock’s piano. “Beautiful” escapes us; the lyrics seem to teeter between modern nursery rhymes and details about children adopted from overseas.
“I Don’t Believe” is a highly personal cry of defiance, going so far as to credit his wife (who’s also glimpsed “brushing her long chestnut hair”) for one of the aside observations. Unfortunately, the bridges about his stockbroker aren’t about to raise any sympathy. The travelogue in “Another Galaxy” is elevated by Eno’s touch, though he’s heavier-handed on “Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean”, which doesn’t quite reach lyrical heights. “That’s Me” suggests more autobiography—underscored by the vintage snapshot used to illustrate the lyrics—and while “I never cared much for money” is a baldfaced lie, the multiple looped guitars (again, all him) stand out.
Along with its overall consistency, the best thing about Surprise is its manageable playing time. There is something of a bonus track in “Father And Daughter”, a remix of a song previously featured in The Wild Thornberrys Movie, but it fits both sonically and thematically. It’s a nice inclusion.
Paul Simon Surprise (2006)—3
I really like “You’re the One”, but I do think that, to a certain extent, Paul was playing it somewhat safe after the bombout of “The Capeman”. So, I wouldn’t have predicted Brian Eno at all. On the surface, it seemed like an odd pairing, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I thought about “YtO” is that Paul was becoming increasingly like David Byrne. They are influenced by the same music, and many of Paul’s lyrics were becoming more eccentric. So, on that level, the pairing made perfect sense.
Paul had written funky songs like “Outrageous” and “Sure Don’t Feel Like Love” before (the latter, with a different arrangement, could have been on “One Trick Pony”). However, the stripped down and electronicized production makes them like early Talking Heads, which isn’t bad at all. The ballads are more intriguing. “Everything About It Is a Love Song”, “Once Upon a Time There Was An Ocean” and, especially “Wartime Prayers” sound a lot like the gorgeous stuff on the Byrne/Eno album “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today”, which would follow this by a couple of years.
Nonetheless, Eno does not submerge Paul’s identity. In a different element, he cannot help being Paul Simon. This makes it another great listen. For me, it all works, except for “Father and Daughter”. It does not quite fit in, musically of lyrically, but it is a nice song. It did well with the fans, but it’s sort of unfortunate that he went back to the tried and true after this.