So Beautiful or So What

保罗-西蒙(Paul Simon)生长于纽约，是当今美国歌坛少有的常青树，他的音乐风格多种多样，意境深远，写的曲优美动人，而歌词更是宛如诗歌一般，从1957年出道至今已经50多年，他凭借自己的卓越天才和实力共赢得13座格莱美奖杯，其中包括2003年的终身成就奖以及3座分别以“Bridge Over Troubled Water”、“Still Crazy After All These Years”、“Graceland”所拿下的年度专辑大奖。他在上个世纪60年代和加芬克尔(Art Garfunkel)组成的演唱组可说是流行音乐史上最经典的重唱组合，曾一度占据美国排行榜并夺得格莱美等各大重要奖项。他们的经典歌曲《毕业生》主题曲《寂静的声音》Sounds of Silence及奥斯卡最佳电影插曲《斯卡波罗集市》Scarborough Fair等在中国也是家喻户晓。 2011年，拥有“乐坛常青树”之称的保罗-西蒙发行了最新创作专辑《人生的美丽与平凡》(So Beautiful or So What)，“So Beautiful Or So What”在流行摇滚与世界音乐的听觉万花筒之中，传递了对于人生意义，信仰，人性的美好与残酷的一些省思。这也是保罗-西蒙首度在创作之中实行了音乐取样的方式，一次偶然的机会令他对一段关于二次世界大战的演说内容产生兴趣，于是决定取样这段关于战争、死亡与圣诞节的演说内容，然后将这段内容与自己思想中的生活心理结合在一起，变成一首首融合了传统蓝调、民谣摇滚与非洲音乐元素的时代之歌。除此之外，保罗-西蒙在专辑中传达出音乐地球村的概念也是处处可见，像是在"Rewrite"这首歌曲中，他就以传统吉他与来自西非内陆国家马利的21弦竖琴乐器大师Yacouba Sissoko进行奇妙的乐器对话，而在"Dazzling Blues"这首歌曲中则是经由南印度的打击乐与居尔特民谣吉他编织浪漫情境。 《人生的美丽与平凡》发行首周便以近7万张的销量攀登至美国Billboard专辑榜No.4，创造了保罗-西蒙的最高首发周销量成绩，被美国乐评界一致称作“2011年最值得期待的一张专辑”。《滚石》杂志给予盛赞“保罗-西蒙二十年来最棒的一张专辑”；《纽约时报》也评价这张专辑“保罗-西蒙的每一个吉他拨弹都有其独特的祝福之意”。保罗-西蒙透过这张专辑分享了自己对于音乐与人生的热情，就如专辑名称所述，这就是“人生的美丽与平凡”。 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Touted as Paul Simon’s return to traditional songwriting -- Simon writing alone with a guitar and a pen instead of constructing songs around rhythmic loops the way he’s done since Graceland -- So Beautiful or So What doesn’t feel like a return to the ‘70s. From the moment the record kicks in with the heavy blues stomp and samples of “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” it’s evident that while Simon may have changed his style of composing, he’s not abandoning his method of record-making, which is distinctly engaged with the present. When Bob Dylan sings about Alicia Keys he does so with an old-fashioned swing, but when Simon writes a verse about Jay-Z he does it within the context of an album anchored in polyrhythms, chattering guitars, and digital loops, where the handful of delicate acoustic numbers function as a counterpoint to the clean bustle of the rest of the record. Certainly, So Beautiful or So What isn’t as reliant on soundscapes as its Brian Eno-produced predecessor, but it is no rejection of texture, just as it is in no way a repudiation of the musical sensibility of Graceland, whose rhythms are as firmly felt here as on any record he’s made since. Rather, So Beautiful elegantly touches upon each of Simon’s solo signatures within a compact 38 minutes, its brevity indicating the precision of Simon’s focus. There are no wasted sounds or words here, and if he offers some of his simplest, prettiest tunes in years (“Love & Hard Times,” “Amulet”) and spends a considerable chunk of the record dwelling on spiritual matters, the album is neither steeped in nostalgia nor haunted by death. Paul Simon is remarkably clear-eyed in assessing the modern world and his place in it, not shying away from contemporary sounds -- if anything, the production is occasionally a tad too brittle, like so many digital-age recordings -- but not chasing after youth either. He’s merely living in his time and reporting, returning with an album that’s vivid, vibrant, and current in a way none of his peers have managed to achieve.