Like so many 60's and 70’s icons Paul Simon desperately needs to reassert himself at the start of the 21st century. Indeed, following the failure of his late 1997 Capeman Broadway production/ album and the less than earth-shattering Rhythm Of The Saints album

earlier the same decade he desperately needs to follow up his last truly great record, Graceland, from 1987, if he's to avoid fading away on the nostalgia circuit.

That said, this non-concept-related Paul Simon collection of songs actually takes us back to the days of Hearts And Bones, There Goes Rhymin' Simon and even his eponymous 1965 debut solo album – back before the days of Simon and Garfunkel. Yes, Simon is still tapping into the rhythms of world music and bouncing his voice off Vincent Nguni's rippling guitar licks but for a man who once said "the age of melody is over" he's sure crafting some gorgeous melodies here.

Tracks like 'Old' do match his finest lyrics while also remaining true to Paul Simon's core aesthetic as a writer. Which is? To let his songs reflect the passages of time he’s moving through rather than – as with his musical peers such as The Rolling Stones – pretend he is, well, forever young.

Simon is at his best in the epic, ironically-titled ‘Darling Lorraine’, which, at six and a half minutes, nearly slithers right alongside Dylan's ‘Idiot Wind’, as the definitive marriage-turned-into-ashes song.

Less effective are narrative tales such as 'The Teacher' and 'Pigs, Sheeps And Wolves' which are the kind of obtuse and asinine social commentaries Paul Simon probably writes in his sleep. But the album finally is redeemed before it fades into silence. 'Quiet' finds the man maybe even preparing for death. If so, surely he speaks for all of us – no matter how old we are – as he sings "I am heading for a place of quiet/Where the sage and sweetgrass grow/By a lake of sacred water/From the mountain's melted snow." The sound of silence, indeed.