After a recording hiatus of nearly 20 years, Carly Simon is back with a new studio album, called “Comes in Waves,” which releases in full on August 14. The first single, titled “Howl,” was released on YouTube this Tuesday.
Simon, a Grammy award winning singer-songwriter and inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, recorded the album in her studio on Martha’s Vineyard, where she lives full-time. It’s made up of 12 tracks and is being released five decades after her first album. In 1971, Simon put out a self-titled compilation of songs that got her international notice, awards, and a legendary reputation as a pioneering vocalist and songwriter.
Simon was famously married to James Taylor, and the pair had two children: Ben and Sally Taylor. Ben Taylor lives full-time on the Vineyard and was featured in his mother’s new album as a singer, musician, producer, and songwriter. Sally Taylor contributed both vocals and cover artwork for the song “Howl.” John Forté is also on the album in one of his last recorded features released after his sudden passing this January at the age of 50. Forté was introduced to the Island by the Simon and Taylor family.
The first single from the album, “Howl,” will be officially released on Friday. The track begins with Simon’s recognizably clear and velvety voice and rises in intensity as the chorus hits. It was co-written with David Spencer, a song writer and music producer. The lyrics are raw and honest, telling a story about difficult feelings rising and falling and trust being tested.
“‘Howl’ lives in that space between betrayal and forgiveness, where anger has to be voiced before it can be released,” Simon said in a press release. “It’s about letting the frustration out so it doesn’t sit and simmer. The song begins in anger, but it moves toward forgiveness, and speaks to any situation where trust has been broken.”
Since the 1970s, Simon helped define a generation of singer-songwriters, with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Carole King. Simon has lived on the Vineyard for decades. In recent years, she’s been seen performing at events like Ladyfest, a music festival spearheaded by local musician Rose Guerin with event co-founder Kelly Feirtag.
Simon has released 13 top singles, wrote two memoirs and five children’s books, and has remained a musical icon nationally and on the Island.
“‘Comes In Waves’ does not attempt to recreate the past. Instead, it continues the conversation Simon has been having with her audience for decades, one grounded in truth, vulnerability, and a refusal to simplify emotion,” the press release stated. “It is a reminder of an artist still fully engaged with her craft, still asking questions, and still finding new ways to articulate what it means to live, to love, and to let go.”