Today's Blog, in which Paul Simon gets out of the tub to make some cool music

So Paul Simon dropped an album in early May of this year, and I really didn't hear a goddamn thing about it. In all fairness, I tend to be oblivious to things sometimes, so for all I know the album cover could've been plastered on every bus in Newark and every blog on the internet. But anyways, I didn't hear about it until I was reading The New Yorker in a shrink's waiting room and I saw a review for the forthcoming (when the magazine went to press, at least) Paul Simon album produced by Brian Eno. Wait, what? Yeah. Brian Eno. The Album's called Surprise and I've really been having a blast listening to it. Eno did a good job of producing an album that sounds different from anything Simon's done before without making it sound like an aging musician trying to revamp/revitalize their sound (see Celine Dion, "and that's the way it is" not that I've ever listened to Celine Dion.). Aside from my initial shock, it's not terribly Surprise-ing to see Brian Eno on the album. Paul Simon is the man who went from collaborating with Art Garfunkle to Lady Blacksmith Mambazo. In addition to the beautifully layered sonic landscape that Eno lays out, the album is great lyrically. Simon touches on our current state political turmoil, growing old, and being a father, to name a few themes.

Paul Simon - Sure Doesn't Feel Like Love

Paul Simon - Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean

All in all, Paul Simon's been cool since before I was born and he's still cool.