Album Review: Meditations on Crime

Harper Simon is one of my favorite musicians. Certainly one of my favorite underrated musicians Being Paul Simon’s son is kind of a blessing and a curse. He gets lumped in the child of musician crowd with Rufus Wainwright, Adam Cohen, Teddy Thompson and so on, but he’s never seemed to get the attention I thought he deserved. He has to date, released two worthwhile albums in 2010 and 2013 and yes, that’s been awhile so I was excited to see new music from him. And a bit perplexed You see Harper’s latest album isn’t what you’d expect. It’s part of a project that includes a book called Meditations on Crime The soundtrack is helmed by Simon and fellow musician Julia Holter and the obligatory “cast of thousands”. There are a few points I want to make about this group of guests. First, they are largely a group that you would not associate with Simon or at least his style of music. Second, there’s a surprising coincidence of many of my favorite musicians appearing here (despite as I said, not sounding like Simon). Third and last, it also seems like an assembly of musicians that must have been pulled from some “Random Artist Generator” insomuch this grouping covers such a wide range of musical territory. Joining Simon and Holter here are Cole Alexander (Black Lips) Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux/Pussy Galore), King Khan, Geologist (Animal Collective), Gang Gang Dance, Ariel Pink, Ian Svenouis (The Make Up/Nation of Ulysses), Paz Lenchantin(Pixies/A Perfect Circle/Zwan), and the Sun Ra Arkestra. The bigger project brings in everyone from Laurie Anderson and Wayne Kramer to Kenneth Anger to Raymond Pettibon to the late Hal Willner As an album, “Meditations on Crime” may appeal to some who are looking for audio noir- jazzy, experimental, ambient. It definitely falls in the “mileage may vary” category. It may become a favorite cult album for you or maybe one listening will be enough, and even though I am generally impressed with the concept, am not sure that I will come back to it that often. It will be one of the last products Willner produced (and fits in perfectly with his best known work like Stay Awake, Rogues Gallery and September Songs) and one of the last works of Danny Ray Thompson, the saxophonist who was a mainstay (and manager) of the Sun Ra Arkestra. 2022 - AntiFragile Music