Hot off the presses. Has anybody else listened to it yet? I’d love to know what you think. I will put my thoughts in later in the thread. One thing I would recommend, Listen to it all at once, on a really good pair of headphones.
I will also say this. It’s different than anything I’ve ever heard Paul Simon, or anybody else for that matter, do.
I’ve listened to some of it. Simon is still a musical talent, but it has a certain “end-of-life self-indulgent contemplation of mortality” quality to it that gives it a morose tinge I find offputting (something I also feel about Bowie’s “Blackstar” album, so make of that what you will).
I agree that if you’re looking for Paul Simon as you know and love him, this will not be what you are looking for. But you still might like it.
Kind of like the “middle-aged self-indulgent contemplation of his midlife crisis” quality that his earlier solo work has? 
I’ve long enjoyed Simon’s work, but at the same time have also found it kind of mopey, off-putting navel-gazing stuff. Maybe because I tend to have the same melancholy self-reflective tendencies at times myself. Listening to the lyrics in my early 20s I remember thinking “jeez, I hope my middle age isn’t as dreary as his! But then, he’s an enormously successful musician and I’m not, so what chance do I have?!?”
A snippet from “Obvious Child”, 1990:
Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself
How it’s strange that some rooms are like cages
Sonny’s yearbook from high school
Is down from the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hand through his thinning brown hair
Bummer city! And yet, this could describe me at times in my life with eerie accuracy (except for the thinning hair part, thanks to the random luck of genetics).
Not to mention “Slip Sliding Away”, 1977:
And I know a father
Who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons
For the things he’d done
He came a long way
Just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and headed home again
Or “The Boxer”, 1968:
I am just a poor boy
Though my story’s seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
He’s always been mopey.
Yeah, he’s like the mopey lyricist version of the baby boomer “pig in a python” analogy: describing what sucks about every stage of life 
Simon himself has poked fun at his own tendencies with songs such as Think too Much, or some of the remarks he’s made in interviews about songs like I am a Rock, etc. He may be a Dougie Downer but at least he’s a self-aware one. LOL.
That being said,. I heard a bit of age in his voice on this album. I saw him in concert a couple years ago and his voice has a change even since then. I recently read that he suddenly lost almost all of the hearing in one ear. I do Wonder at what point in this albums production that happened.
Simon doesn’t strike me as a particularly religious man, but as you might expect from an album entitled 7 Psalms are a number of biblical and spiritual references. But that’s been a trend in his recent work just period… I guess the education he had when he was Bar Mitzvahed stuck with him.
I am going to have to give this a couple more listens. The jury is still out as to how much I actually personally enjoy the album. But no matter how you slice it, it’s outstanding work from an objective level
I have not heard the album yet, but Graceland the song just came on Radio Paradise… A song of aspiration and loss, and amazing. That was quite the album and cemented him in my mind as THE premier singer/songwriter
I typically play the album Graceland straight once or twice a year. One of my favorite all time albums; I enjoy every song.
I’ll give this one a try.
If you love Graceland, have you listened to Rhythm of the Saints? I think it got a bit of a “here we go again with Simon exploiting another indigenous musical culture for his own purposes” vibe, and is underrated, especially by comparison with Graceland. But it has some wonderfully evocative songs, and I’ve given it repeat listens over the years, probably as often as I have to Graceland.
I saw Simon’s Graceland tour. Hands down the best concert I’ve ever seen.
What struck me besides the music was his generosity. He had three then little-known (to Americans; or, at least to this American) South African performers as opening acts: Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. All fantastic musicians, and very enjoyable to hear. But Simon came out on the stage with each, playing and singing backup. Like Prince singing background vocals for Ani DiFranco, that impressed me, made me think he cared more about great music than his “star” status.
Yeah. I definitely agree with that. I saw him play back up for a lady that he pulled out of the audience because she said that Duncan was the first song that she learned to play on the guitar… Let her sing, too. This clip radiates pure joy.
I’ve seen Ladysmith, by the way. They’re fantastic in their own right… Paul Simon, Rayna singing Duncan - YouTube
I’m listening now.
I saw the Graceland tour also. It rates fairly high on my list, though below the Floyd shows I saw. About equal to Paul Simon in the Park. Also I saw Plant/Page in the 90s, that was a little more memorable for me.
But yea, Graceland tour was really good.
Simon does make a point of acknowledging the origins of the music and uses the indigenous music groups rather than just swiping the styles. So there’s that.
Rhythm of the Saints is definitely worth a listen - I rather like the rhythm section on “Can’t Run But”.
Yeah, I wasn’t claiming that myself, but there have been rumbles of cultural appropriation in the past. Controversy actually started with the Graceland album, because Simon defied a UN boycott against apartheid to travel to South Africa to work with the local musicians. I never understood that particular controversy myself, since Simon was working with the people who were suffering from apartheid, paying them 3 times more than union wages, and bringing them and their struggles world recognition.
I admit I have found it a bit…incongruous in the past, listening to both Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints– a privileged white guy singing lyrics about his divorce and first-world problems over exotic polyrhythmic music, Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing backup. But it all works somehow! And Simon does have some songs on both GL and ROTS that are to at least some degree about the culture and region of the musicians he’s performing with.
I was actually giving GL and ROTS a re-listen yesterday, and I think I actually like ROTS more, but they are both incredible albums.
To the OP: sorry about all the hijacking! I haven’t even listened to Seven Psalms yet 
I’ll give it a listen today or this weekend and get back with my opinion on it, promise!
FYI, of those, one already had won a Grammy and one had a Billboard Number One, in the 60s already. While you didn’t know them, they would have been familiar to lots of older Americans.
No worries. We’re talking about Paul Simon so I got no beef with that. I love Graceland and Saints by the way.
I saw Ladysmith earlier this year in a little theater, a concert postponed for over three years, first because of the death of their patriarch and then Covid. It was a pure joy and they are clearly very grateful for Paul Simon.
Yeah, back then I was a sheltered white kid from the suburbs, and only knew the music I heard on the radio. But I could tell that Makeba, Masekela, and Ladysmith were accomplished musicians, clearly no strangers to performing for large crowds; I assumed they were established stars in South Africa.
Makeba had an international hit song that reached #12 on the Billboard charts in 1967. She was far from obscure.
On the news tonight, they announced that Simon lost the hearing in his left ear during the making of the album. Probably means the end of his touring.
Found a link.