Carly Simon releases her first album of original songs in 18 years on Friday, a 12-track collection called "Comes in Waves" that arrives via Iris Records and closes out the longest gap of new material in her six-decade career.
The album was written and recorded largely at Simon's home on Martha's Vineyard, with her son Ben Taylor producing and her daughter Sally Taylor contributing vocals and the cover artwork. Producer Paul Samwell-Smith, who worked with Simon on her 1971 album "Anticipation," returned for one track, "Share the End," originally sketched during those same sessions more than 50 years ago. The record's lead single, "Howl," arrived in June alongside the album announcement.
Anger That Moves Toward Forgiveness
Simon has described the songs as moving through anger toward something closer to peace. Of "Howl," the album's opener, she said the song was about releasing frustration before it curdles into something worse.
"It's about letting the frustration out so it doesn't sit and simmer. The song begins in anger, but it moves toward forgiveness."
Carly Simon
The title track's central image — feelings that "rise and recede like the tide" — runs through much of the record, which touches on love, memory, family and reconciliation. It is Simon's first collection of new original songs since 2008's "This Kind of Love." The gap spans a period in which Simon largely stayed out of the touring spotlight and, more recently, dealt with health challenges of her own; she publicly disclosed a Parkinson's disease diagnosis roughly a month after this album was first announced.
Simon, 83, remains one of the defining singer-songwriters of the 1970s, known for hits including "You're So Vain," "Anticipation" and the Bond theme "Nobody Does It Better." Her catalog has aged into a durable influence on a generation of confessional songwriters, and longtime fans have greeted news of new original material with the kind of anticipation her own 1971 hit is named for.
The album arrives without an accompanying tour announcement. Simon has performed live only sporadically since a bout of severe stage fright derailed her touring career in the early 1980s, so "Comes in Waves" is likely to be experienced by most listeners as a studio record rather than a concert event. That has not dampened interest: early reaction among fans and music writers has focused on the rarity of the release itself — a veteran songwriter's first full set of new material in nearly two decades, arriving at a moment when several of her 1970s contemporaries have also returned to the studio.
"Comes in Waves" is out Friday on Iris Records, with all 12 tracks available on streaming platforms at release.