So Beautiful or So What

Paul Simon’s creativity: tried-and-true

Paul Simon’s professional career began in the fifties of the twentieth century. Then he acquainted with Art Garfunkel and that meeting changed the young people lives – literally. They formed the duo Simon And Garfunkel that got an incredible popularity. However Paul had never limited himself with the duo’s creativity only. Thus, the rocker released his debut solo album The Paul Simon Songbook in 1965, which proved to be critically acclaimed. Since that time Simon played in many bands, took part in various projects but he never abandoned his solo efforts. It is worth mentioning that his studio attempts had always been very popular among listeners. It has been five years since the artist issued album Surprise, so his fans had been looking for their favorite musician’s new songs. Well, to their joy, So Beautiful Or So What was finally released.

So Beautiful Or So What and old good bluegrass

The album So Beautiful Or So What became Simon’s twelfth studio work. Traditionally strong record is performed on the highest level, just as befits to all albums of a true professional. Brevity is the soul of wit indeed – Paul presented only ten tracks on So Beautiful Or So What, with the total length about forty minutes. However the musician was concerned first of all with the quality of the material, as usual. In one of the interviews Simon stated that “So Beautiful Or So What is the best thing that he has done in twenty years”. Now all the music lovers have an opportunity to satisfy themselves: major chords of the first track Getting Ready For Christmas Day will make anyone smile and at the same time they create a proper mood. Positive Dazzling Blue, the longest composition of the studio work, brings lots of good vibes. The special role of percussion deserves some special attention: bright guitar parts are well supplemented by original rhythms – here goes the bluegrass influence. You will not find any average compositions – different performer and different level. Simon chose only the best songs, and the intuition did not let him down this time again: Love & Hard Times, Questions For The Angels and others will be enjoyed by the most exacting music lovers. In sum, even from the stylistic point of view the record will be interesting for all the connoisseurs of original music, as soon as the bluegrass genre absorbed elements of Scottish, Irish, Welsh and Afro-American national music. The best answer for “how does it sound?” is the long play So Beautiful Or So What.

Traditions in ten tracks

Ten songs of So Beautiful Or So What proved to be enough quantity to prove to the whole world that Simon still creates strong and very atmospheric albums. The record is done in one style, which turned out to be a great thing, because the artist managed to demonstrate the bluegrass for a hundred percent, presenting the colorful sound, interesting rhythms and a wonderful diversity of musical instruments. The long awaited So Beautiful Or So What attracted listeners’ and experts’ attention in practically no time, which was not a surprise at all: Paul created a reputation of an incredibly talented musician. Such kind of reputation was established due to a great number of strong albums and hit compositions released by the artist during his career. While busy with the favorite occupation, Simon always made his fans happy, and that is how it was back in sixties, seventies... Time goes by, but luckily some things remain permanent. So Beautiful Or So What brings a lot of positive emotions and it will become a perfect present to any connoisseur of bright and vivid music.