1 - Getting Ready for Christmas Day 
2 - The Afterlife 
3 - Dazzling Blue 
4 - Rewrite 
5 - Love and Hard Times 
6 - Love Is Eternal Sacred Light 
7 - Amulet 				play
8 - Questions for the Angels 
9 - Love & Blessings 
10 - So Beautiful or So What	play

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. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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01. The Boy In The Bubble
02. Graceland
03. I Know What I Know
04. Gumboots
05. Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
06. You Can Call Me Al
07. Under African Skies
08. Homeless
09. Crazy Love, Vol. II
10. That Was Your Mother
11. All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints
12. Homeless (Demo)
13. Diamond On The Soles Of Her Shoes (Alternate Version)
14. All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints (Early Version)
15. You Can Call Me Al (Demo)
16. Crazy Love (Demo)
17. The Story Of ?Graceland" (As Told By Paul Simon)

It’s been a quarter century since Graceland’s release, and the world is a vastly different place. Apartheid is over. Nelson Mandela is free. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, formerly famous only in the black villages of South Africa, have become world-renowned, recognized as readily by the couch potatoes who’ve heard the group on TV commercials for 7 Up, Lifesavers and Heinz ketchup as traditional fans of world music. Some things never change, though, and Paul Simon’s Graceland sounds as innovative today as it did in 1986.

To celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary, Legacy Recordings is re-releasing Graceland in four different packages. The leanest version is a two-disc reissue, which bundles the original tracklist with five extra songs, an audio documentary and a DVD. Under African Skies, a new documentary covering the album’s creation and legacy, is also included. A second version of the album adds an extra DVD to the mix, as well as an 80 page book and a replica of the yellow legal pad where Simon once jotted down his lyrics. The third incarnation of the Graceland reissue is a remastered 180-gram vinyl. Finally, for those fans who’re wealthy enough to have diamonds on the soles of their shoes, the $250 “Collector’s Edition Box Set Bundle” offers everything listed above, as well as an autographed poster and a linen-wrapped slipcase to hold the whole thing together.

The album itself is the star of all four versions, no easy feat when you’re dealing with this much fan memorabilia, but kudos to Simon and his label for making sure the bonus additions – particularly Under African Skies and several live video clips – serve a crucial purpose, too. Together, they help illustrate the larger story behind the album. Graceland was never just a collection of songs, after all; it was a bridge between cultures, genres and continents, not to mention a global launching pad for the musicians whose popularity been suppressed under South Africa’s white-run apartheid rule. Hearing Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s thickly-stacked harmonies on “Homeless” is one thing; watching the guys perform alongside Simon at a 1987 concert in Zimbabwe (included in the second reissue’s bonus DVD) is something entirely different, a vibrant, visual representation of Graceland’s culture clash. Out in the audience, black and white South Africans enjoy the show in equal numbers, mirroring the diversity onstage. Since Simon’s most famous video clip from the Graceland era was “You Can Call Me Al,” an almost ludicrously Caucasian clip featuring Chevy Chase instead of Bakithi Kumalo, Morris Goldberg or any of the South Africans who actually played on the song, it’s nice to see Graceland wearing its multi-cultural heritage so proudly. This reissue doesn’t just cater to the audiophile who wants to hear the album in crisp, 21st century sound; it gives a broader view of Graceland as a whole, defining it not as an album but as a cultural experiment that changed the way the western world viewed South Africa. --- Andrew Leahey, americansongwriter.com

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