Too middle class and musically polite ever to be “cool”, it feels like Paul Simon could be due a critical renaissance.
If he hadn’t emerged amid such an explosion of talent in the mid-60s, would the man who wrote The Sound Of Silence, Mrs Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water et al be hailed as a songwriting equal to Paul McCartney, Dylan and the rest?
Then there’s the 1986 Graceland career-shift, as successful a reinvention as any artist has enjoyed mid-career and a ground-breaking fusion of Western and African sounds. But even that triumph was tarnished by Simon’s busting, whatever his intentions, of the cultural boycott imposed on Apartheid-era South Africa.
At 69, what more does he have to prove, especially when he could just milk the nostalgia dollar with Art Garfunkel? The most endearing aspect of So Beautiful or So What is that it sounds like the work of a man who knows exactly what he’s good at and doesn’t feel that his powers have somehow faded with age.
There’s a freshness to the phased guitars of Opener Getting Ready For Christmas Day, which like must of the album, returns to the African rhythms of Graceland.
No-one does narrative songwriting anymore but that isn’t going to stop Simon. The songs revolve around the themes of God, religion, the afterlife but always with the light touch of Simon’s conversational vocals.
Love And Hard Times imagines God and Jesus returning to earth and arguing over which radio station to play in the car.
Lines about “mistaking value for price” and a reference to a “nephew in Iraq” in Rewrite shows Simon hasn’t forgotten the topical roots of the folk tradition.
Clocking in at 38 minutes for 10 tracks, Simon isn’t here to waste anyone’s time. The album works as mood piece, with a couple of stand-out tracks.
It’s an adult, confident-sounding record from a veteran who clearly still has enthusiasm for his craft despite approaching 70 and knows how to translate that into the album form which he helped popularise.
So Beautiful or So What is released in UK on June 13. Simon tours the UK in June including Glastonbury and Hammersmith Apollo on June 28 - Simon tour dates
To compare Simon to Dylan is like to compare an apprentice in the workshop of Michelangelo to the master Michelangelo, himself.