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Paul Simon
Surprise
(Warner Bros.)
First Appeared in The Music Box, January 2007, Volume 14, #1
Written by Douglas Heselgrave
Sometimes it’s better to wait awhile before expressing an opinion. If I had
written this piece six months ago when I first heard Surprise, Paul
Simon’s much anticipated collaboration with ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, I
would have written a much different review. I’m not a musical purist, not by any
stretch, and the idea of Simon and Eno working together did not seem as
disparate and untenable to me as it did to others. As a longtime fan of both
artists, I was dying to hear what kind of music the two men could create
together. After all, both musicians have been at the vanguard of what commonly
is called world music; their careers have been characterized by risky stylistic
maneuvering; and they have maintained trajectories that have been delightfully
oblivious to whatever musical style happens to be in vogue. Therefore, I was
expecting a masterpiece, and I wanted to be dazzled as soon as I unwrapped the
CD and pressed "play."
Yet, when I heard How Can You Live in the Northeast, the first song on
Surprise, I was terribly disappointed. All of the textures seemed wrong.
Eno and Simon didn’t appear to be hearing one another. Where their sonic
palettes met, they clashed rather than complemented each other. I repeatedly
tried to listen to the album, constantly skipping tracks in a desperate attempt
to find something I would like, something I would want to hear again. It all
sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard to me, and I reluctantly decided that
the disc was a washout, something that was interesting on paper, but, for a
variety of reasons that I hadn’t yet figured out, was an utter failure.
Nearly five months passed before I decided to give Surprise another
chance. Maybe, I reasoned, I had ruined the album for myself because I had
expected too much from it.
So now, expecting nothing and hoping for no more than to get through a song
without skipping ahead, I listened to Surprise from start to finish, four
times in a row. In doing so, I began to hear what wasn’t obvious to me at first.
That is: this is the best album that Paul Simon has ever released, and it
achieves its tremendous heights of vision because Eno understood completely what
Simon was trying to accomplish musically and lyrically on each of the disc’s 11
tracks. Before you think that I’m trying to atone for my previous slagging and
oversight with hyperbole, I must state that I am well aware that in singling out
this effort from amongst all of Simon’s work as being the one for which he
should be remembered, I’m comparing Surprise with a canon that many
people consider to be sacrosanct. I have been a fan of all of his solo outings
from the confessional songs of the ’70s to his groundbreaking pursuits on
Graceland to his underappreciated 2001 endeavor You’re the One. I
still believe that this comparison stands up.
The reason is that, at age 61, Paul Simon is taking risks with form and
content that he never before has attempted. While it’s true that Simon always
has had an acute ear for melody and that he often has been ahead of his time in
terms of the elements that he has incorporated into his songs, he never really
has challenged traditional song structure like he does on Surprise. As
much as I still love Graceland and as beautiful as the South African
accents are in songs such as Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, the
exotic harmonies and guitar lines do little more than decorate the melodies;
they don’t challenge the essence of the material’s inherent architecture. Twenty
years after their release, the compositions on Graceland remain lovely,
but they aren’t nearly as monumental as they initially may have appeared.
Conversely, Surprise isn’t simply a collection of pop songs with
decorative touches that are provided by a renowned ambient craftsman. Nor, is it
a dry, academic exercise in form. Simon’s melodic sensibilities are intact, and
there are underpinnings of traditional pop music in evidence everywhere. He is
just too tuneful and melodic to write songs without hooks and hum-able melody
lines, but these melodies exist as a skeleton that gives adventurous listeners
something to hold onto as they ride through this phenomenal song cycle. From the
disc’s second track Everything about It Is a Love Song, it’s obvious that
Simon has taken every available opportunity to abandon traditional song
structures. Tempos and melodies change regularly, and careful listening reveals
that musical phrases are sculpted line-by-line in order to accentuate the lyrics
— without regard to maintaining a traditional verse-chorus-verse format. There
are sub-verses within verses, and bridges that arise in the strangest of places.
Eno’s meticulous sound sculpture is staggering in its sensitivity. He
illustrates every line of poetry with an aural painting that evokes the depth
and hints at the sub-text that lies within each carefully chosen word. This is
most evident in the fifth track Wartime Prayers. As the music shifts
through folk, anthemic rock, gospel, and spoken word, it offers more than a mere
demonstration of stylistic virtuosity. It echoes each uttered lyrical sentiment,
following the narrator as he tries to make sense of war through every avenue
that is available to him — from faith to resistance.
At first, the most immediately accessible song (Outrageous) seems like
a political rant that isn’t worthy of an artist of Simon’s caliber. However,
when he sings, "It’s outrageous for a man like me to sit here and complain," the
music and the narrative break down to reveal a man at odds with the world around
him. It then becomes immediately apparent that songwriter Simon doesn’t
necessarily buy what narrator Simon is saying. As he cries out for personal love
in a world that makes less sense as he ages and accepts himself as a mortal in a
universe full of confusion, he transforms lines that on paper appear to be
Hallmark card verses into something uplifting, something that acquires depth as
the tempo changes and the music shifts from staccato rock to ambient soul:
"Who’s gonna love you when your looks are gone?
God will, like he waters the flowers on the windowsill
Take me, I’m an ordinary player in the key of C."
Each song on Surprise resonates more fully with each journey through
its intricate and extraordinary layers of sound. It’s been a long time since
there has been such an ambitious collaboration between musical icons, and it’s
been even longer since one has yielded results that bring out and complement the
strengths of each individual artist at his best. Surprise is a mature and
understated collection that tries to impress no one with the obvious, and it
demands the utmost patience from the listener. It’s worth the perseverance.
Don’t make the same mistake that I did by putting it on the shelf for months.
Life is too short, and the music here is too good not to be heard and listened
to as often as possible.  ½
Surprise is available from
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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