I have been streaming Paul Simon's So Beautiful Or So What on NPR and I am pretty damn impressed though mot always. A little too much so what, here.
For the beautiful:Early on there is three killer tracks, The Afterlife", "Dazzling Blue" and "rewrite" that are as strong as any moment in his solo career you care to mention. "Rewrite" is like an outtake from his first album only the rhythms aren't the same. It sounds like 1970 Simon but it has such a strange off beat rhythm, it doesn't. By the end Simon is whistling and it really is a dazzling moment. As is "Dazzling Moment" which includes his first sample ever!!!
The so what: ncludes the godawful "Questions For The Angels", the whatever "Getting ready for Christmas" though I agree the lyric is better than I thought, and athe bluesy woofer closing title track.
Everything else is somewhere in the middle.
This is a first listen (maybe three times in) so we will see what happens, but "Dazzling Blue" lives up to it.