Fresh from his Dublin show last month on his farewell tour, Paul Simon has announced details of his new album, In the Blue Light, which will see him revisit some of his own favourite songs from his back catalogue "like a new coat of paint on the walls of an old family home".
The album will be released on September 7, with the music icon saying that it "consists of songs that I thought were almost right, or were odd enough to be overlooked the first time around".
"Re-doing arrangements, harmonic structures, and lyrics that didn't make their meaning clear, gave me time to clarify in my own head what I wanted to say, or realise what I was thinking and make it more easily understood," Simon added.
He has chosen songs from the albums They're Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973), Still Crazy After All These Years (1975), One-Trick Pony (1980), Hearts and Bones (1983), The Rhythm of the Saints (1990), You're the One (2000) and So Beautiful Or So What (2011).
In the liner notes for In the Blue Light, Simon wrote: "It's an unusual occurrence for an artist to have the opportunity to revisit earlier works and re-think them; to modify, even completely change parts of the originals.
"Happily, this opportunity also gave me the gift of playing with an extraordinary group of musicians, most of whom I hadn't recorded with before. I hope the listener will find these new versions of old songs refreshed, like a new coat of paint on the walls of an old family home."
In the Blue Light tracklisting:
One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor
Love
Can't Run But
How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns
Pigs, Sheep and Wolves
René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War
The Teacher
Darling Lorraine
Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy
Questions for the Angels
