I don’t think Paul Simon’s ever made a beautiful album. He’s made plenty of beautiful songs though. That made albums that were at least good. That was until a little over a decade ago when; after The Capeman, one of his most melodic sets; the quality of his music suddenly declined. He’s been stuck in an artistic rut ever since. This new album, only his third in all that time, is no return to form.
The first song, a Christmas anthem, suggests it might be. It’s better than every song on his last album and most of the ones on The One before it. But So Beautiful is a wonderless mess from there. Most of the album, all but the first and last song, is simply a drag. The poetry and storytelling is signature Paul Simon, but the vocal melodies, an element the artist used to master, are boring and bland.
These songs should’ve been scrapped for better ones, or “simple” ones as Paul Simon himself described during a Barnes And Noble interview in 2008. He debuted live demo versions of Love And Hard Times and Questions For The Angels that day, music he described as “complex”, before strumming an experimental groove he described as the result of going back to something simple.
That groove was bouncy and catchy. It didn’t need drums or even vocals to sound marvelous. I hoped he’d make a song out of it, but it’s nowhere to be found. In its place are songs it takes repeated listens to grasp the melodies of. The whiny guitar riffs on Love And Blessings are funky, but it’s not enough. I want a beautiful Paul Simon album, or at least another good one, before he’s dead and gone.
my rating : 2 of 5
2011