''In the Blue Light'' is the fourteenth solo studio album by American

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...

singer-songwriter Paul Simon. Produced by Paul Simon and

Roy Halee Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects. Early life He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy ...

, it was released on September 7, 2018, through Legacy Recordings. The album consists of re-recordings of lesser-known songs from Simon's catalog, often altering their original arrangements, harmonic structures, and lyrics. The songs were recorded with guests including the instrumental ensemble

yMusic yMusic is an American sextet Chamber music, chamber ensemble from New York City. Consisting of a trumpet, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, the group was formed in Brooklyn by trumpeter CJ Camerieri and violinist Rob Moose in 2008. Ca ...

, guitarist

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...

, trumpeter

Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Award ...

and

Bryce Dessner Bryce David Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, as well as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother Aaron is also a member of the group. Together they write the music, in coll ...

. The album's title is a reference to the lyrics in the song "How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns" from the 1980 album '' One-Trick Pony''.

Unreleased recordings

In an interview for CBC Radio, Simon confirmed that more songs were recorded during sessions for the album but ultimately left off the finished record. Outtakes include a number of unspecified songs from '' You're the One'' and a re-recording of " The Sound of Silence" with music based on the arrangement of Simon's live version from recent years. It is unknown whether or not these recordings will be released.

Reception

''In the Blue Light'' was released to favorable reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 70, based on eleven reviews. Dave Simpson at ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the album four stars and said that "generally, sparser arrangements allow more space for Simon’s dazzling imagery and oblique but relevant ruminations on everalsubjects." Jesse Hassenger of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the album a B- and wrote, "It would be easy to get bogged down in treating ''Blue Light'' as a compare/contrast exercise, but what’s most impressive about is the way that it sounds more or less of a piece as its own record." David Browne from ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' wrote that, "At its best, ''In the Blue Light'' amounts to a dream set list for devoted PaulHeads who wish he’d do entire shows of rarities." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

opined that "Everything on ''In the Blue Light'' is deliberate, gentle, and subtle, placing as much emphasis on the words and melody as the instrumentation, which isn't necessarily the case with the dense original albums."

Track listing

Personnel

* Paul Simon – vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, harmonium *

– electric guitar *

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the '' Modern ...

– drums *

Renaud Garcia-Fons Renaud Garcia-Fons (born December 24, 1962) is a highly accomplished French upright-bass player and composer. Career Garcia-Fons started his musical studies at an early age. At five years old he picked up playing the piano, switched to classic ...

– bass * Joel Wenhardt – piano * Nate Smith – drums * Jim Oblon – guitar *

John Patitucci John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. When he was 12, he bought his first bass and decided on his career. He listened to bass parts in R ...

– bass *

Edie Brickell Edie Arlisa Brickell (born March 10, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's ''Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars'', the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' albums chart. ...

– finger snaps * CJ Camerieri – trumpet * Andy Snitzer – saxophone * Sullivan Fortner – piano *

– trumpet * Marcus Printup – trumpet * Dan Block – clarinet * Walter Blanding – saxophone *

Wycliffe Gordon Wycliffe A. Gordon (born May 29, 1967) is an American jazz trombonist, arranger, composer, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. Gordon also sings and plays didgeridoo, trumpet, soprano trombone, tuba, and piano ...

– tuba * Chris Crenshaw – trombone * Marion Felder – drums * Herlin Riley – tambourine * Odair Assad – guitar * Sérgio Assad – guitar * Walter Blanding – saxophone * Jamey Haddad – percussion * Vincent Nguini – electric guitar * Mark Stewart – acoustic guitar * Sullivan Fortner – piano, celeste * Jack DeJohnette – drums * Joe Lovano – saxophone

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:In the Blue Light 2018 albums Paul Simon albums Albums produced by Roy Halee Albums produced by Paul Simon Legacy Recordings albums