While the problems of security onstage can be frustrating, they inspired one of the finest tracks on Paul Simon’s new album, “Stranger to Stranger,” his first in five years. “Wristband” says so much in three minutes and 17 seconds - both about life and also its creator’s working methods.The initially hilarious story of a star who takes a cigarette break and can’t get back in to his own show was written after a few occasions when Simon was challenged for a pass. He moves into scat singing and then a darker reference to riots in “heartland towns that never get a wristband.” Those with money or influence can open the doors. If not, it’s hard luck, buddy.The collection took some time to come together with its creator perfecting lyrics such as these, and adding complex instrumentation. There is African woodwind, Peruvian percussion and gospel. Simon works with Italian electronica musician Clap! Clap!, and uses unique instruments created by music theorist Harry Partch.This time around, the experimentation doesn’t detract from the songs. Sometimes it even helps. In the recording stages, one track was slowed and a vocal weirdly sounded like “The Werewolf” – and this became the title of a reworked song about a messenger of death. He says: “Most obits are mixed reviews – life is a lottery... a lot of people lose.”There are a few other references to mortality, such as in “The Riverbank,” but as a whole this is a well-balanced happy/ sad album and Simon isn’t going to lose in the lottery for reputational stakes for sure. He’s written some of the best songs of recent decades. Take your pick: “I Am a Rock,” “Sounds of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “You Can Call Me Al.” (Or the less well known “Duncan,” The Only Living Boy in New York” and “Something So Right.”) At his best, he is up there with Lennon-McCartney and Dylan. While Simon doesn’t have to do any more for his place in musical history, it is gratifying that he continues.The simplicity of the early compositions long ago got replaced with growing sophistication – sometimes working brilliantly. Simon’s collaboration with Brian Eno on “Surprise” a decade ago had merit, though sometimes he seemed falling into his own trap of making things too complex. Simon knew it himself, as in the 1983 song title “Think Too Much.”Thought is often good of course, and plenty of other top singer-songwriters have also developed fascinations with production and genres that have influenced their mature work (think Joni Mitchell, Donald Fagen and more.)What to do as a 74-year-old rock star? Simon, like Leonard Cohen (now 81) has a second life and a big tour. He has the confidence to punctuate his album with instrumentals to give the words space – such as a tribute to his wife, musician Edie Brickell, punningly titled “In the Garden of Edie.” She had also inspired “Dazzling Blue” on Simon’s last outing, “So Beautiful or So What” in 2011.Each of his albums sounds different, and the 2016 effort surpasses its predecessor. This makes it Simon’s best since maybe “The Rhythm of the Saints” in 1990. There are echoes of even his best work.What it must be, decades later, to remember that you once wrote “Old Friends” with its ironic remarks: “Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly... How terribly strange to be seventy.”Now Simon is well through that age and still writing literate, lovely songs. Last time he was looking forward to arriving at the Pearly Gates on “The Afterlife.” This time, in “Cool Papa Bell,” he proclaims heaven has been found: “Okay, it’s six trillion light years away, But we’re all gonna get there someday.”
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