Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years - 1975

 

Whereas 1973's There Goes Rhymin' Simon experimented with various musical styles, this album, two years later, was pretty much played in the same laid-back, immaculately-played and easy late night jazz style. It is a very relaxing album. 

Still Crazy After All These Years is a reflective piece, well-known to everyone by now. My Little Town sees Simon reunited with Art Garfunkel for some delicious harmonies and a Kodachrome-style rhythm. I'd Do It For Your Love is another entrancing slow number, while 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover is an addictively rhythmic and catchy song that became one of his biggest hits. Night Game is a rather odd song about a participant in a baseball game dying, it would seem. It is a rather chilling song. 

Gone At Last is a vibrant, lively slice of infectious gospel and the very attractive Have A Good Time has a punchy bit of jazzy brass in it, over an insistent female backing vocal. Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy is a soulful, slow number that Simon would re-record on 2018's In The Blue Light. 

You're Kind has an appealing, bassy and percussion-driven refrain and a mellifluous Simon vocal. The tempo ups a bit on this, but not much, just in its stronger rhythm. Silent Eyes is a plaintive piano and bass-driven ballad - featuring some lovely gospel backing vocals - to end what is a pretty low-key and short album. 

Slip Slidin' Away, recorded during this album's sessions, surely should have been included. It is the best track on the album, not on the album, if you understand. It was a huge seller, but for me, there are several much better Simon albums out there. It is perfectly pleasant, of course, as all his albums are. It seemed a bit of a "treading water" album to me. Despite that, there was not another album to come for another five years. Actually, maybe I'm being a bit unfair, it does have hidden depths and appeal, requiring many listens. ( addendum: I've just come back to it again and feel like adding that that it has already grown on me even more).

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