So Beautiful or So What by Paul Simon

So Beautiful or So What is the twelfth solo studio album by American folk rock singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was released on April 8, 2011, by Hear Music. The album found Simon reuniting with former collaborator and record producer Phil Ramone. Having experimented with rhythm-based textures for much of the previous two decades, the singer returned to composing songs in a more traditional manner using only his acoustic guitar. These songs were further augmented by experimental recording practices in the studio. The album was largely recorded in a small cottage at Simon's home in New Canaan, Connecticut. The music of So Beautiful or So What features West African blues-inspired guitar playing, Indian-style percussion, and experimentation with samples, which ranged from an excerpt from a 1941 sermon to nighttime ambience in Kenya. The songs were recorded with little bass but with a very large presence of bells. Much of Simon's lyrics touch on themes of spirituality and mortality, which Simon said was unintentional and resulted naturally in his songwriting process for the album. So Beautiful or So What received widespread acclaim from critics, many of whom considered it Simon's best work in two decades. It later appeared on many year-end lists of the year's best records. The album also became his highest US chart debut, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and charted within the top ten in nine other countries.