Edie Brickell and New Bohemians Hunter And The Dog Star

Out Friday ★★★★★

Edie Brickell has two claims to fame. She is the wife of Paul Simon – the third and longest-serving holder of the post, married for 28 years so far, mother of three of his four children.

More importantly, she’s a singer who had already made her mark, with What I Am, before her eyes met Simon’s across a crowded television studio.

The new album from Brickell (left) and her band, New Bohemians, is only their fifth in a 32-year career, but they play so fluently, it’s as if they had never been apart. The 11 tracks glow with the flow.

Like Simon, Brickell is a genreblender, ricocheting from rock to bluegrass, by way of pop-funk. On the folksy Rough Beginnings she could almost be Dolly Parton; on the sparky Tripwire she leans towards Toni Basil; on the dreamy

Miracles she turns into Jenny Lewis; on the fiery My Power she channels Patti Smith. It all adds up to a beautifully crafted patchwork.

You wait ages for a rising star, then two come along at once. Last weekend the charts were stormed by Celeste, who went straight in at No 1 with her soulful debut album Not Your Muse, while another tip for the top, Arlo Parks, was at

No 3 with Collapsed In Sunbeams.

A first-generation Londoner who lives in Hammersmith with her French mother and Nigerian father, Parks is so young (20) that she was born this century. Her album is the diary of a clever student with some easy-going trip-hop attached. The lyrics deal with love, friendship and mental health, and gleam with bookish details. ‘I had a dream, we kissed,’ she sings, ‘and it was all amethyst.’

Parks went to the same private school as Hugh Grant, Latymer Upper, but sounds more like Lily Allen. She’s a big talent who just needs to work on making the words fit the melody. She could begin by listening to Edie Brickell.