It’s been twenty years since Brickell was “What I Am” with The New Bohemians, and in that time her band’s broken up, she’s done solo work, married famed singer/songwriter/Joe DiMaggio-enthusiast Paul Simon, reunited The New Bohemians (with 2006’s Stranger Things), and now she teams up with Paul’s guitarist/composer/chip-off-the-block son Harper. While the record doesn’t grab you and hold you down, with more and more spins, The Heavy Circles just gets more and more weight.
The Heavy Circles doesn’t just swim round and round the folk-rock pool, but delivers a surprising amount of variety. Lead-off track “Henri” is a dark, haunting bass procession, while the following “Better” is a bopping, catchy number with a great walking beat. “Better” is really a standout on this record, with Brickell’s folk-singer country-smart voice working particularly well. In general, Brickell and The Heavy Circles as a whole shine on the down-home tracks like “Better”, the country-lady-blues of the subsequent “Ready To Play”, and the driving alt-road blues of the penultimate “Dynamite Child”.
On other songs on Circles, Brickell and Simon go high and pretty, to nice, if not quite as winning, results. They also get a little help from their friends, especially Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda, who contributes on about half the record’s tracks. The even more famous ‘son of sixties legend’ Sean Lennon jumps in on bass, back-to-back, on the slow and wistful sustain of “Easier” (also featuring Martha Wainwright’s vocals) and the effortless expanse of “Maximo”. Beastie Boys keyboardist and solo artist Money Mark wades in on keys for the following “Wait and Wait”, a relaxed number that really creeps up on you, as well as on the choral finisher, “Oh Darling” (the other half of Cibo Matto, Mito Hatori, guest-vocals on the last one as well). However, the best of the beautiful bunch might just be the less-guested “Easier”, thanks to its wonderful, touching flow.
The stepmother-stepson duet behind The Heavy Circles isn’t as Oedipal as you might think, considering Brickell is only six years Harper Simon’s senior (really, it says more about Paul…). Born out of a jam session and a one-off jaunt in the recording studio with Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Luna, Joan As Policewoman), The Heavy Circles is a nice, interesting piece of work that proves Brickell still has a great voice, and young Simon can step out of his father’s long shadow.
MP3 Stream: "Better"
