Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on 2026-06-12
Carly Simon returns with Comes In Waves, her first new album of original songs since 2008, arriving August 14. Written and recorded primarily at her Martha’s Vineyard home, the 12-track album brings together a body of work that feels both deeply personal and quietly expansive.
“Howl,” the album’s opening track and first single, serves as a striking reintroduction that captures the emotional terrain Simon continues to explore — Listen Here. Co-written and produced with David Spencer, a platinum- and gold-certified songwriter and producer whose work spans pop, country, Christian music, film, television, and advertising, the song is built around Simon’s unmistakable voice and a lyric that moves from anger and betrayal toward forgiveness, offering a powerful first glimpse into Comes In Waves.
“‘Howl’ lives in that space between betrayal and forgiveness, where anger has to be voiced before it can be released,” Simon shares. “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.”
Six decades after her solo debut, Simon’s voice remains unmistakable: emotionally precise, literate, and unguarded. Comes In Waves reflects a lifetime of observation and experience, anchored not in nostalgia, but in clarity. Throughout the album, Simon revisits themes that have long defined her work, including love, memory, family, self-reckoning, and forgiveness, while allowing space for contradiction, ambiguity, and emotional evolution. The result is a collection that moves fluidly between reflection, confrontation, and acceptance, expanding the album’s scope into something both deeply personal and timelessly philosophical.
The album’s title is drawn from “Slowly,” a song centered on patience, return, and emotional renewal. In the lyric, feelings rise and recede like the tide, carrying the quiet reassurance that even the heaviest emotions do not remain forever. Across the record, that idea becomes an emotional throughline: love, grief, anger, memory, creativity, and healing all arrive in waves, moving through the songs with their own force and timing.
Created alongside a close circle of family, friends, and longtime collaborators who have remained part of Simon’s creative world across decades, the album features contributions from John Forté, whose appearance on the record arrives following his passing earlier this year. Simon’s son Ben Taylor appears throughout the project as a singer, musician, producer, and songwriter, and her daughter Sally Taylor contributes vocals and created the cover artwork for the single.
Legendary producer Paul Samwell-Smith returned to revisit and rework “Share The End,” a song he originally produced for Simon’s landmark 1971 album Anticipation and continued to help oversee the entire project. Acclaimed producer and engineer Frank Filipetti, one of Simon’s most trusted longtime collaborators, was a driving force behind the project, playing a central role in shaping its direction and bringing the music to life.
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. 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.
Comes In Waves will be released on August 14.
Comes In Waves Track List
1. Howl
2. Maybe I Never Loved You
3. Peaches
4. Love Has No Ending
5. Mother Of Pearl
6. Slowly
7. Four In The Morning
8. The More I Look For You
9. Love The Way I Do
10. The Father Daughter Dance
11. Share the End
12. Do It Anyway
