Carly Simon returns to recording original material after a 16-year gap. "Comes in Waves," her first album of new songs since "This Kind of Love" in 2008, arrives this spring. The legendary singer-songwriter, now in her late seventies, channels introspection and lived experience into the new work.
Pitchfork premiered "Howl," a track from the forthcoming album that showcases Simon's enduring vocal prowess and compositional gifts. The song suggests an artist still invested in meaningful songwriting rather than nostalgia or greatest-hits touring. Simon, who shaped 1970s folk-pop and gave the decade some of its most memorable singles, has largely stepped back from the recording studio in recent years, though she never entirely disappeared from public life.
Her last studio album came during the Obama administration. The intervening years have seen her focus on memoir, reflection, and selective performances. Now, with "Comes in Waves," Simon signals that she still has stories worth telling and melodies worth crafting. The album title itself suggests cyclical reflection, the kind of theme that emerges naturally when an artist reassesses their life and work after such an extended silence.
Simon's return to original songwriting matters in a landscape where legacy artists often retreat into catalog exploitation. She resists that easy path. Her voice carries the weight of nearly six decades in music, from "You're So Vain" onward. That accumulated experience informs "Comes in Waves," which promises to be far more than a vanity project or final statement album. Instead, it reads as a genuine creative engagement with the present moment.
The release underscores a broader trend in contemporary music: aging songwriters refusing retirement. Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and others have shown that artistic vitality persists well into advanced age. Simon joins this company, proving that her gift for turning emotional complexity into accessible song remains intact. "Comes in Waves" arrives as evidence that creative voices, once silenced by time or circumstance, can find reasons to speak again.