Eighteen years is a long time to stay quiet. When an iconic artist drops off the map and refuses to churn out contractual filler, expectations reach a boiling point. Fans want a masterpiece. Skeptics expect a tired cash grab. Carly Simon shatters both assumptions with Comes in Waves, her 24th studio album and her first collection of brand-new material since 2008.
Instead of hiding behind modern production tricks or leaning entirely into soft nostalgia, Simon faces her history head-on. She's working through old ghosts, testing her vocal cords against time, and delivering a project that feels startlingly alive.
Facing the Past Without Flinching
The album's emotional gravity hits immediately. On tracks like "Maybe I Never Loved You," Simon steps right back into the conversational, confessional songwriting style that made her a household name in the 1970s. Lines like "Maybe I never loved you / But anyway, I thought I did / I married you, we had a kid" carry the weight of a lifetime. You do not need to comb through celebrity gossip to feel the sting. It reads like a raw dispatch from someone looking back at high-profile heartbreaks with clear-eyed honesty.
She isn't rewriting history. She's just telling the truth about it.
The title track and the broader concept of Comes in Waves draw from the reality that grief, love, and healing don't follow a straight line. They roll in, crash over you, and recede. Recorded primarily at her home on Martha's Vineyard, the project avoids the sterile environment of a corporate Los Angeles studio. It sounds close, warm, and lived-in.
A Family Affair That Avoids Sentimentality
Collaborating with family can sink an album fast. Too often, vanity projects sound like home-video audio tracks that should have stayed private. Here, it actually works.
Simon's son, Ben Taylor, acts as a primary musical anchor, contributing production, writing, and performance muscle. Her daughter, Sally Taylor, handles vocals and creates striking visual art for the singles. Rather than feeling like a nepotistic exercise, the family involvement grounds the record. These are people who know Simon's voice intimately, letting her distinctive phrasing take center stage without fighting the instrumentation.
Add in contributions from longtime allies like producer Frank Filipetti and a poignant posthumous appearance by John Forté, and the record feels like a community gathering. Even legendary producer Paul Samwell-Smith returns to rework "Share the End," a deep cut originally tracked for her 1971 landmark album Anticipation.
Grappling With Reality
You cannot talk about this release without acknowledging the context surrounding it. Simon revealed a Parkinson's disease diagnosis while finalizing the record, alongside a bout with skin cancer surgery. Knowing those physical hurdles adds a layer of grit to every note she pushes out.
Her voice isn't the youthful instrument that commanded stadiums in the MTV era. It has weathered edges. It cracks slightly under pressure. But that vulnerability serves the material better than pristine perfection ever could. When she belts out the lead single "Howl"—urging a listener to scream into the void and get the frustration out of their system—it feels earned. This is an artist telling you that survival requires volume and grit.
Why This Record Breaks the Mold
Most legacy acts returning after a multi-decade hiatus play it safe. They record jazz standards, cover old blues tracks, or lean heavily on orchestral arrangements to mask declining vocal power. Simon refuses that safety net.
- Twelve original tracks built around real emotional terrain.
- Refusal to sanitize her past relationships or regrets.
- Organic instrumentation that shuns over-compression.
Comes in Waves proves that true songwriting doesn't expire with age. Simon reminds us why she earned her spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, leaving us with a masterclass in how to grow older in public without losing your bite. Go listen to "Howl", sit with the lyrics, and let the rest of the record unfold at its own pace.
