CARLY SIMON - Comes In Waves (Iris Records)
”Anticipation” and “You’re So Vain” linger as reminders of a Seventies many of us would like to forget. Carly Simon has other ideas. At 83, newly diagnosed with skin cancer and Parkinson’s, Simon proves she’s no museum exhibit. Her first album in 18 years - a suite of songs about life, love, and carrying on - has moments that rank with her best. She’s frank, introspective, and - unexpectedly - funny, with one of the best musical punchlines in recent memory. And that voice, so well-remembered from her hits, still has the ability to elevate… and devastate. Her children with James Taylor, Ben and Sally Taylor, contribute, and of course there’s an orchestra. Simon hasn’t tried to change with the times, preferring instead to be… timeless. And it works - not on every track, perhaps, but enough to make this album worth a listen.
“Well, you win some and you lose some, but philosophy won’t help you now,” Simon sings on opener “Howl,” one of several tracks that contemplate the fickleness of love. The lyric has a sly wisdom; the chorus soars. Similarly, “Maybe I Never Loved You” ponders divorce. The tabloid press has characterized it as a dis of former hubby James Taylor, but that misses its nuance. “Maybe I never loved you,” Simon wonders, “or maybe I always will.”
Simon sings about her mother, her father, and her daughter on separate tracks, beautiful and moving expressions of different kinds of love. “Love the Way I Do” and “Four in the Morning” offer more introspection, as does the remaster of 1971’s “Share the End,” one of Simon’s album cuts that never achieved the ubiquity of her hit singles but still stands as masterful songcraft. And even if you didn’t know of her diagnoses, “Do It Anyway” - about finding the courage to go on despite overwhelming obstacles - stands as a powerfully moving anthem, without the mawkish kitsch of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
She still walks into the party like she’s walking onto a yacht. So pay attention.
DENT MAY - The Big One (Carpark Records)
When Randy Newman suggested we “drop the Big One and see what happens,” he meant the H-Bomb. For Dent May, “the big one” is the next environmental disaster that could see his adopted hometown of L.A. slide into the sea, but like Newman, his prognostication comes wrapped in piano-based melodies, orchestral arrangements, and a sly wit. Where Newman tended to be acerbic, though, May embraces the Laurel Canyon zeitgeist like an old friend. While the album has an undeniable prettiness (accentuated by May’s falsetto, of which he is much too fond,) it’s all a bit too smooth for my tastes.
Formerly a one-man bedroom popster, The Big One finds Dent collaborating with musicians with whom he improvised these arrangements. It’s a mixed bag. “I Don’t Like You (But I Love You)” and “Second Wind” have their moments, but “Last Night I Saw a UFO” never delivers the payoff the title promises, and overall, The Big One reminds me of Woody Allen’s dictum that once you get too mellow, you inevitably ripen and start to rot. It’s a pass for me.
HOVVDY - Big World (Arts & Crafts)
I’m happy to report that Big World shows no sign of the band’s two songwriters and lead vocalists, Will Taylor and Charlie Martin, having relocated to Nashville to pursue work as “pop songwriters.’ Hovvdy still occupies a space in indie rock that lies separate from but deeply influenced by folk, Americana, and country. Following 2024’s sprawling self-titled double-album, Big World keeps things stripped down and fluid. Like the Feelies, the percussion jumps out at you almost as much as the guitars, while other elements - pedal steel, Wurlitzer organ, harmonica - provide almost subliminal support. Taylor and Martin’s vocals come across as flinty, even-tempered, and calming. Word is that the duo came into the studio with instrumentals and wrote the lyrics extemporaneously, lending an almost conversational quality to many tracks. There are a few exceptions - the quick-tempo’d “Try Try Try” brings clever wordplay to an earwig chorus, and the repeated “I don’t know why” in “Junk” lands like poetry, it’s simple verses punctuated by sonorous string instruments that leave a lasting impression. Hovvdy may be an acquired taste, but Taylor and Martin know what they’re doing. Big World impresses by never trying too hard.
THE WOMACK SISTERS - The Womack Sisters (Daptone)
The Womack sisters - BG, Kucha, and Zeimani - grew up on the road surrounded by music, singing as part of their parents’ act since earliest childhood. Talk about family ties: Besides their parents, who toured as Womack & Womack, Bobby Womack’s their uncle and Sam Cooke was their grandfather. With that legacy, it’s little wonder their debut dazzles from first track to last. With the Dap-Kings Bosco Mann on board, the arrangements provide the perfect background for these voices, sassy and commanding when taking the lead, and combining in angelic harmony. And while there are obvious touchstones to the classics, this is no nostalgia trip. The album kicks off with a fiery track about driving Uber to make rent, then segues into a parade of sassy, feminist love songs (“If You Want Me,” “If I Let You,” “Didn’t Mean Too Much To Me,”) passionate torch songs “(I Just Don’t Want You [To Say Goodbye,]” “You Went Away Too Long,” and a sisterhood anthem that can stand alongside Sister Sledge (“My Sisters And Me.”) Put this on at your next party and everyone will be wondering what crate of Motown and Stax/Volt obscurities you found it in. Then you can brag about being on top of what’s trending.
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