Here’s one that bubbled up from the past to take over my iPod of late. In retrospect, this album has much more goin’ on that the celebrated “Graceland.” Despite this album representing the turning point for Simon to be the most arrogant prick in history (ever see him in an interview? He’s worse than Robert Plant) it is damned good stuff. This rediscovery may inspire me to dig out that copy of “You’re The One” that has been laying dormant on the shelf since 10/16/00 when I wrote the following obnoxious, distinctly unprescient, yet entertaining review:
Copied from LeisureSuit.net
I don’t know if it is FDA-approved, but with his latest release “You’re The One,” Paul Simon has discovered the cure for insomnia.
No, no, no, it’s not that bad, but it’s certainly not good enough to merit anyone seriously opposing my claim. Paul Simon, the lesser vocalist of Simon and Garfunkel, the man most responsible for the curiously antiseptic and vaguely negroe rhythms one hears at any given Starbucks in North America, has collected another group of mediocre folk songs and has felt the need to pepper it up with imported liquid-sounding guitars.
Fifteen years ago “Graceland” was unique, and an interesting follow-up to Simon’s excellent “Hearts and Bones” collection. Since then everything he’s been doing (and doing slowly I might add) seems like a failed attempt to recapture “Graceland.” Someone needs to tell him that “Graceland” was his exception, not this new rule.
“Darling Lorraine,” opens with that Afro-pop guitar driven beat so well mimicked on John Lurie’s Marvin Pontiac album. The song spins a yarn about a married couple waking to realize the love has faded. What wants to be dark and true a la Randy Newman sounds corny and forced, like Billy Joel. “Hey, you don’t like the way I chew?” the husband asks. It’s clever, yeah, but in the hyper-serious setting Simon constructs with his hybrid music, it just sounds retarded.
There are some pleasant romance-y songs. “Love” has a dark melody and sweet harmonies. What kinda annoys me is that I know just how many mixed tapes this only mostly-good song will find its way on. I think it is unfair just how much cultural real estate this album will gobble up.
It’s conceivable that I’ll be in an apartment with a young devotchka whose lit some candles and wants to hear some good music. Heavens, it’s not so out of the question that I will have to make love to songs from “You’re The One.”
And it’s okay for the better songs, like the title track and “Love,” but what about the truly sickening songs like “Pigs Sheep and Wolves” and “Old.” The former makes Bob Dylan’s “God Gave Names To All The Animals” sound like “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.” It and “Old” are gratingly talky-sung (when did Simon really just give up on singing?) “Old” has whimsical reeds and ha-ha lyrics about being an old fart, and how it’s just okay.
Paul Simon has created the musical equivalent of a Richard Gere romantic comedy.
