The Heavy Circles

Album Review

One interpretation of the "heavy circles" of the album title and group name here might be the circles of heavyweight talents associated with this effort. Specifically, the Heavy Circles are a duo consisting of singer/songwriter Edie Brickell, who has a history going back to her platinum-selling work with the New Bohemians in the late '80s, and her stepson, Harper Simon, a son of Paul Simon, Brickell's husband, by his first wife. The apparent generational divide doesn't really exist: as of the release of this album, Brickell was 41 years old, Simon 35. They were joined in the studio by friends of Simon's including other famous progeny, such as Sean Lennon and Martha Wainwright. For all that, however, the disc might as well have been billed as an Edie Brickell solo album, since Brickell co-writes and sings lead vocals on every song. The band is given greater prominence than might be the case with a solo album, as it plays rhythmic pop/rock arrangements clearly influenced by '60s and '70s rock, and Brickell is mixed a little lower than she might be if this were her record. But her voice is sufficiently distinctive that anyone familiar with her work and hearing this album simply would take it as an Edie Brickell record. As Edie Brickell records go, it is a pleasant but modest effort. The songs are well-crafted, but not particularly impressive; the playing meanders in places; and Brickell seems a bit hemmed in, not able to express herself in as individual a way as usual.