If your discography includes Graceland and Bridge Over Troubled Water, you don’t exactly have to keep churning out new albums. So Paul Simon isn’t. He’s preparing to release a new “musical work” instead, called Seven Psalms. A press release explains that the project is a “33-minute, seven-movement composition” that’s meant to be heard “as one continuous piece.” Swap “movement” for “song” and that may sound an awful lot like an album — but Seven Psalms “transcends the concept of the ‘album,’” the release assures.
Out May 19, Seven Psalms is Simon’s first original release since 2016. He announced it with a five-minute trailer documenting his work on the project. He explained the title came to him in a dream, and soon after, he began waking up to write lyrics between 3:30 and 5 a.m. The trailer features clips of music, which is full of Christian imagery (“The Lord is my record producer”); Simon describes the project as “an argument I’m having with myself about belief or not.” It also shows Simon working with collaborators such as the vocal ensemble VOCES8 and his wife, Edie Brickell, who sings on the project, plus a strings section and jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. “I’m trying all the time to move things in this kind of flow way that puts you in a dream,” Simon explains of Seven Psalms. “And I think if you’re willing to fall into a dream space, you’re willing to let your judgment down.” Like your judgment about what is and isn’t an album, for starters.
