Surprise
 | By Paul Simon Warner Bros / Wea, 2006, Audio CD Customer Rating: 195 reviews Recommend |
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Among the most popular artists and greatest songwriters of our time, Paul Simon returns with his first album in six years—and the album titled Surprise is exactly that. First, three songs were co-written with electronic music guru Brian Eno; second, the other songs are straightforward, wonderfully American pop. Surprise is a pleasant surprise for Simon fans.
Since severing his epochal partnership with Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon's solo career been characterized by restless reinvention. But while it's easy to see such disparate, cross-cultural collaborations as Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints as Simon's quest for new creative partnerships, beneath them lies a more crucial willingness to continually challenge the very assumptions and craft of his own songwriting. Six years after his sublime, underappreciated You're the One Simon has pushed that sensibility into a rewarding, if equally unlikely, partnership with Brian Eno. Yet the former Roxy Music texturalist cum contemporary producer/sound conjurer supreme (aided by such stellar sidemen as Bill Frisell, Herbie Hancock and Steve Gadd) offers barely half the "surprises" here.
The playful "Sure Don't Feel Like Love" argues Simon can still beckon his more traditional pop muse at will. Yet some of his best work here turns as much on hypnotic, if no less politically pointed, quasi-spoken word pieces (like "Wartime Prayers" and the gripping, post 9/11 rumination "How Can You Live in the Northeast?") as traditional songcraft. Eno is credited with providing "Sonic Landscape" to Simon's production, but also co-wrote three tracks, infusing "Another Galaxy" with contrasting doses of bracing energy and ethereal elegance, while seasoning the more traditional folk musings of "Once Upon a Time There Was An Ocean" with infectious electro-funk rhythms. "Outrageous," their best full collaboration, suggests that while Eno and Simon may approach world music - and indeed most pop forms - from polar extremes, the common ground they find is truly elevated. In an era when many of his peers are content to craft mere artistic comebacks, Simon's re-emergence here is a bold, compelling step forward. — Jerry McCulley
Recommended Paul Simon
 The Studio Recordings 1972-2000 [BOX SET] |  The Rhythm of the Saints |  There Goes Rhymin' Simon |
| Graceland |  Negotiations and Love Songs 1971-1986 |  Still Crazy After All These Years |
- How Can You Live In the Northeast
- Everything About It Is A Love Song
- Outrageous
- Sure Don't Feel Like Love
- Wartime Prayers
- Beautiful
- I Don't Believe
- Another Galaxy
- Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean
- That's Me
- Father And Daughter
Title: Surprise
Sales Rank: 5422 in Music
Artist: Paul Simon
Label: Warner Bros / Wea, 2006-05-09, Audio CD, 1 Disc
Package Dimensions: 5.51 x 4.88 x 0.39 inches, 0.22 pounds
- An Album that Should Endure
- How does SURPRISE stack up to earlier Paul Simon album classics? I guess only time will tell. I think it's a fine, thoughtful piece of work. As is his style lately, Simon writes in a non-linear vein, which has frustrated, even turned off former fans. His recent work continues to produce melodies that seem to run all over the place. This is not… More reviews
- only for true Paul Simon afficionados
- I was actually somewhat disappointed in selections Simon chose for this collection. With the exception of the last track, "Father and Daughter," most of the tracks are very similar - vocals with heavy percussion support and light guitar. Some additional electric instruments were added on some tracks but most of the tunes are not the kind that… More reviews
- Don't listen to the naysayers...This is a great album!
- This is one of the most (if not THE most) imaginatively written, produced, and played album in Simon's canon. Some may miss the world-flavored instrumentation and predictability of albums such as Graceland (and dislike Eno's brilliant electronic spicing), but it is evident from the first listen that you are in the hands of masters; after subsequent listens, you may… More reviews
- Buy another Paul Simon title, ANY other Paul Simon title
- Paul Simon the storyteller can still be found in this album.
Paul Simon the singer and musician is lost to electronica and apparently silly attempts to sound modern.
This is not magical Paul Simon. Almost any other PS album is!
Sigh.… More reviews
- Highly worthwhile, even if for one song...
- I would consider myself a cautious though true Paul Simon admirer (meaning that while I consider Rhythm of the Saints among the best albums of all time, and find much to deeply admire on Hearts and Bones and even Songs from the Capeman, I find Graceland mostly a major ho-hum and You're The One a feeble, almost senile effort). I have… More reviews
