Carly Simon releases her first album of original songs in 18 years Friday, “Comes in Waves,” featuring a song that seemingly addresses her estranged ex-husband James Taylor.
The upcoming 24th studio album marks her first full studio album of original content in 18 years, since 2008’s This Kind of Love.
The 12-track album was written and recorded primarily at her Martha’s Vineyard home.
“Comes in Waves” is set to be released on August 14.
The album’s second track, “Maybe I Never Loved You,” contains questioning lyrics about a former partner Simon never identifies by name.
“Maybe I never loved you / But anyway, I thought I did,” Simon sings in the track. “I married you, we had a kid / That counts for something.”
In the song’s bridge, the doubt deepens.
“Maybe I never loved you / Yes, and maybe I did,” she continues. “And maybe you never loved me / Although God knows, you said you did.”
Simon reflects on moments when her ex came through for her emotionally.
“You came for me those times I hid / I’m so glad you did that,” she sings. “And maybe it’s wrong to wonder how everything kind became forbidden.”
Before the track concludes, Simon seems to accept the ambiguity of their connection.
“And maybe it’s best to bury whatever it was we had our fill of,” she sings. “Maybe I never loved you / Maybe I always will.”
Simon was married to James Taylor from 1972 to 1983.
They share two children: Sally Taylor, 52, and Ben Taylor, 49.
The troubles in their marriage started soon after Simon’s first album, “No Secrets,” blew up bigger than Taylor’s release, “One Mad Dog.”
Taylor became highly unreliable after the birth of their second child, Ben, and Simon was aware that he was probably cheating on her while on the road.
Simon found out about a backup singer Taylor was having an affair with in 1979 and confronted him, but Taylor told her, “This isn’t about you,” before Simon revealed she had her own affair with her sound engineer and Taylor confessed to several other affairs.
The couple’s fractured union was shaped by deeper demons.
Taylor has owned up to the fact that it was his 20-year battle with addiction that in part ruined several relationships, including his marriage to Simon.
They haven’t spoken since their 1983 divorce.
Yet Simon’s feelings have not faded.
In a 2015 interview with People, Simon admitted that she still has love for Taylor, even though he might not feel the same way.
At that time, she spoke candidly about the enduring pull of their bond.
“I still want to heal him, I still want to make him all right,” Simon said in that 2015 interview. “And I love him so much.”
She explained what took her nearly three decades to understand.
“My incredible loyalty to him, in spite of the fact that he has treated me without any regard, has been so painful to me for so long,” Simon said. “But, through the course of writing the book, I really started to understand that I could love and not be loved. And that was the big realization for me, that it doesn’t have to be a two-way street.”
In 1997, the two recorded a duet, “Two Sleepy People,” on Carly’s album Film Noir.
Simon has been candid about their “far from idyllic” union in her 2015 memoir “Boys in the Trees.”
In the memoir, she wrote of the marriage: “Our love became bipolar, switching from love to hate, lust to loathing, and back again, sometimes within a day.”
After Taylor, Simon married writer James Hart in 1987.
She was married to Hart until 2007, when they divorced, and later told People “he turned out to be gay,” but that they remain “great friends.”
Simon has since found stability with longtime partner Richard Koehler.
Last month, Simon announced she has Parkinson’s disease and was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.
The “You’re So Vain” singer said she received the Parkinson’s diagnosis after experiencing a decline in mobility, noting that “eventually, there were periods when I could not walk without considerable help.”
After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, Simon was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
In a statement to her fans, Simon shared how making this album sustained her through her health struggles.
“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape,” she wrote in July. “It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room. It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”
In the viral moment that frames “Maybe I Never Loved You,” Simon grapples with decades of unresolved feelings toward Taylor in densely layered lyrics that shift between doubt and acceptance.
The song never names him, leaving room for listeners to hear their own heartbreak in her words.
Yet for those familiar with Simon’s history—her memoir, her interviews, the arc of her creative life—the target feels unmistakable.
“Maybe I Never Loved You” stands as a final statement on a union that defined both of their careers and emotional landscapes.
Ben Taylor contributed throughout the project as a singer, musician, producer, and songwriter, while Sally Taylor contributed vocals and created the single’s cover artwork.
The album’s lead single, “Howl”, was released on June 11.
The album will arrive on August 14.