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Paul Simon Paul Simon has always like to experiment with blending different types of music together to create

something new and different and this record is no exception. Things began to show up on the final Simon & Garfunkel album, but once he was free of that association, he began fusing gospel and doo-wop, as well as Latin forms into his early solo albums, and with Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints he added African and South American rhythms and instruments to the menagerie. With each of these mergers, Simon has been successful in holding on to his own originality as well as showing proper respect for the new music hes working with. Now, with his newest release, So Beautiful or So What?, Simon has incorporated loops and samplings and done so with care and delicacy. The album begins on a strong note, with Getting Ready for Christmas Day, whose driving rhythm track overplays an extensive sampling of the Rev J. M. Gates and his congregation from a sermon in 1941, on top of a classic Simon melody with slightly light hearted lyrics about hard times, the war and the un importance of possessions. Its followed by a meatier and funnier tune, in Afterlife where we still have to fill out the form first/then you wait in the line. Then he separates the religions by the shape of their noses, from narrow to flat, and where it remains our fate to suffer and wait for the knowledge we seek. It does seem that Simon (one of the two truly great bards of the rock music era) has his mind on mortality these days, as it should for a man approaching seventy. Although hes never shied away from discussing religious ideas, hes always seem the typical agnostic Jew, who believed in something bigger than us, but wasnt prepared to say what it might be. He was never as God obsessed as Dylan, but this album changes that. The major themes here are God, mortality and Love. Speaking of love, the album contains a pair of beautiful love songs, Dazzling Blue and Love and Hard Times. The first one follows The Afterlife and the African rhythms, instruments and vocal techniques give this song an ancient, almost otherworldly feel, which matches perfectly with beautiful lyrics of eternal love. His guitar playing and vocals are as good on this tune as they have ever been. As he says in the song turn your amp up and play your lonesome tune. The latter tune is a piece of poetry, set to a lovely, orchestral score. What Paul McCartney makes sound maudlin Simon weaves into something with real feeling. Other standouts on the album include Rewrite which is a witty and knowing tune, dealing with how we all try to rewrite the facts of our lives. Yeah Im working on my rewrite, all right/Gonna change my ending, throw away the title/Toss it in the trash. Theres also a beautiful instrumental, Amulet, that shows off Simons virtuosity on the guitar, and the albums namesake closer, which repeats the line, Life is what we make of it/so beautiful or so what? Two of the best however, are Love is Eternal Sacred Light, which gives a nice synopsis of the history of the universe from the Big Bang, to where man becomes a machine, oil

runs down his face/and the machine a man with a bomb in the marketplace. What it reminds me most of is The Boy in the Bubble from Graceland. It also has a verse where Simon speaks for God by saying Big Bang, thats a joke that I made up, back when I had eons to kill/You know most folks dont get when Im joking, maybe someday they will. Perhaps Questions for the Angels is the strongest song on the album, when it could easily be the corniest. Its a song about a modern day pilgrim who believes in angels and who is on a pilgrimage to ask them questions like who am I in this lonely world. One of Simons strong points as a writer is how he able to mix comedy with seriousness in his lyrics and hes at his best here, with two very clever verses that lead to the profound ending which is totally serious. First, he plays with words in a verse that asks, If you shop for Love in a bargain store/and you dont get what your bargain for/Can you get your money back? Then follows it with a verse about a billboard of Jay-Z, with a kid on each knee and wearing clothes that he wants us to try. Its such a hip reference to the consumer culture that rock music seems to have bought into, that if comes off both humorous and sad at the same time, especially when he follows that verse with the final question for the angels, which is If every human on the planet and all the buildings in it should disappear/Would a zebra grazing in the African savanna care enough to share one zebra tear? Paul Simon has long been one of my favorite songwriters. Hes written great folk songs, gospel songs, rock songs, and pop songs, and has been able to say more and keep more of his intellectual integrity than anyone else that has had as much popular success as he has. This is a great Paul Simon album, the first one this good since Graceland and thats been a long time. As he says himself in Love is Eternal Sacred Light, I am driving along in my automobile/Its a brand new pre-owned 96 Ford/Check out the radio, pop music station/That dont sound like my music to me. Its good to have him back, making the seriously beautiful pop music hes always been known far. Lets hope his next great album doesnt take him another 15 years.

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