“So Beautiful or So What” by Paul Simon

"So Beautiful or So What" is the title track of Paul Simon's 12th solo studio album, released on Hear Music in April 2011, and he wrote it alone and produced it with Phil Ramone, his old collaborator, who also mixed. Simon wrote these songs the old way, on an acoustic guitar, then let the studio rough them up, much of the recording happening in a small cottage at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The credits tell the story of the sound: Simon on electric guitar and glockenspiel, Vincent Nguini on acoustic guitar, Jim Oblon on drums, Steve Gorn on bansuri, and Steve Shehan covering bass, saz, angklung, crotales and resonator guitar. The album around it was hailed by many critics as Simon's best work in two decades and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.