Paul Simon: So Beautiful Or So What - 2011
After an interesting album produced by Brian Eno in 2006's Surprise, Paul Simon returned five years later, this time without Eno, but with a bit of his musically adventurous influence remaining. It is a short album at thirty-eight minutes but it is certainly an eminently enjoyable one. Once more he subtly eases some contemporary sounds into the songs. He has long been very clever in that way.
Getting Ready For Christmas Day is a bit of a strange opener - upbeat and toe-tapping but with a bit of a feel of an ad hoc demo about it, particularly in the way the sound of the scratchy, bluesy acoustic guitar riff seems to fade in and out. The vocals are shared and are similarly improvised and loose. After a few minutes, however, it gets into your system and you get used to it.
The Afterlife has you thinking that your speakers aren't playing up, as the previous track had you feeling, with a deliciously quirky and rhythmic number about filling out forms and waiting in line delivered in typically laidback but cynically weary style by Simon. The rhythmic influence of the Graceland and Rhythm Of The Saints albums can be clearly detected here, the latter album's grooves even more so on Dazzling Blue which simply drips with intoxicating percussive rhythms and rubbery, vibrating bass sound.
Rewrite is an attractive, staccato beat-backed acoustic and percussion song, with instantly recognisable Simon vocals. It contains some very Malian-sounding West African guitar in the middle. The old world music influences are still around. Love And Hard Times is a gentle acoustic, strings and vocal number of the sort that Simon specialises in.
Love Is Eternal Sacred Light sees the tempo upping on a drum and guitar-powered highly catchy song that sort of blends Americana with a world music energy. Check out the harmonica-drum interplay bit about two minutes in and then when Simon lifts his vocals to meet the song's pace in true Graceland style. Great stuff.
Amulet returns to the acoustic format, this time in a short instrumental interlude. It merges seamlessly into the moving quiet ballad Questions For The Angels. It briefly references the "railway station-destination" lyric from Homeward Bound all those years ago and, to bring it up to date, Simon name-checks Jay-Z too.
Love And Blessings has an infectious rhythm and it breaks out into some strong drums as it swings jazzily on its way. There are some hints of doo-wop in there too, something that makes a regular appearance in Simon's music. A jerky, blues meets world music rhythm backs the enigmatic So Beautiful Or So What. Although a short offering there is some fine material on here and it shows Simon to still be a creative, relevant artist all these years down the line.
