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"&lt;p&gt;On his new album, &lt;em&gt;You&amp;apos;re the One&lt;/em&gt;, Paul Simon lowers the conceptual heat that typically surrounds his projects. After the South African and Brazilian journeys of, respectively, &lt;em&gt;Graceland&lt;/em&gt; (1986) and &lt;em&gt;The Rhythm of the Saints&lt;/em&gt; (1990) &amp;#x2014; and the foray into musical theater on &lt;em&gt;Songs From &amp;apos;The Capeman&amp;apos;&lt;/em&gt; (1997) &amp;#x2014; it must have seemed like the right time for a more straightforward collection of songs. &amp;quot;Somewhere in a burst of glory/Sound becomes a song/I&amp;apos;m bound to tell a story/That&amp;apos;s where I belong,&amp;quot; Simon sings on the new album&amp;apos;s opening track, and the comfort and command he displays throughout &lt;em&gt;You&amp;apos;re the One&lt;/em&gt; demonstrate that he&amp;apos;s right.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;wm:embed type=\"related\"&gt;&lt;/wm:embed&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, &amp;quot;straightforward&amp;quot; is a relative term. Musically, the eleven songs here center on guitar-bass-percussion arrangements, with occasional keyboards, strings and wind instruments providing additional texture. In Simon&amp;apos;s way, the melodies are lucid, simple in the best sense of the term. The album&amp;apos;s overall impression is of quietness and introspection.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;Direct as they may seem to be, however, many of these songs are not so quick to yield their meanings. &lt;em&gt;You&amp;apos;re the One&lt;/em&gt; comes out a week or so before Simon&amp;apos;s fifty-ninth birthday, and age &amp;#x2014; not to mention marriage and fatherhood &amp;#x2014; has evidently done little to temper his unsentimental view of love and its elusive promises. Take what would initially seem to be the heartfelt declaration of the album&amp;apos;s title song. By the tune&amp;apos;s chorus, devotion unpredictably transforms into accusation: &amp;quot;You&amp;apos;re the one/You broke my heart/You made me cry.&amp;quot; Ever the cool observer, Simon shakes his head philosophically: &amp;quot;Nature gives us shapeless shapes/Clouds and waves and flame/But human expectation/Is that love remains the same.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;That expectation rarely is met, and the netherworld where unending possibility mysteriously disintegrates into inexplicable loss is Simon&amp;apos;s great thematic terrain. In &amp;quot;Darling Lorraine,&amp;quot; what the singer calls love is really a desperate hedge against his inner fears &amp;#x2014; and what may well be his murderous rage. Alongside a droning organ part, the trancelike &amp;quot;Quiet&amp;quot; suggests that death &amp;#x2014; &amp;quot;When the perfect circle/Marries all beginnings and conclusions&amp;quot; &amp;#x2014; may ultimately be the only deliverance from the maddening inner chatter of our anxieties.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;But everything is not so grim. Over energetic guitar chords reminiscent of Buddy Holly, who gets name-checked in the song, &amp;quot;Old&amp;quot; has some fun with the inevitability (if you&amp;apos;re lucky) of aging. And the delicate ballad &amp;quot;Love&amp;quot; intimates that, despite our loneliness and panic at the prospect of abandonment, love is &amp;quot;free as air/Like plants, the medicine is everywhere.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;At times, Simon allows the power of his lyrics to disintegrate into abstraction. &amp;quot;The Teacher&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Pigs, Sheep and Wolves,&amp;quot; for example, strive for allegorical richness but never quite achieve it. They&amp;apos;re either too obvious or too complex &amp;#x2014; it&amp;apos;s hard to tell which. But &lt;em&gt;You&amp;apos;re the One&lt;/em&gt; can still take a worthy place in Simon&amp;apos;s esteemed body of work. This album may not lead you to the music of other continents. But it provides a map of the shifting geography of our emotional lives &amp;#x2014; the yearning vulnerability of our hearts, the intractable terror in our bones &amp;#x2014; and it&amp;apos;s all the more valuable for that.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/youre-the-one-20001003>