Cloud atlas was published in 1802. It followed a similar effort in French by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1801. Howard's nomenclature defined four fundamental types of clouds: cirrus or thread-cloud, cumulus or heap-cloud, stratus or flat cloud (level sheet), and nimbus or rain-cloud (see Classification of clouds). There followed a long period of development of the field of meteorology and the classification of clouds, leading up to 1896, the International Year of Clouds. The history of this period is the subject of a popular book, "The Invention of Clouds". During that time, the Englishmen Rev. Clement Ley and Hon. Ralph Abercromby, were influential.
So Beautiful or So What Love Song", contained a chord progression he found particularly interesting. After coming to this realization, he focused on the album’s three ballads, "Questions for the Angels", "Amulet", and "Love and Hard Times". Unlike his previous rhythm-based albums, in which he would gain inspiration for his guitar parts from pre-recorded backing tracks, Simon took a more traditional approach to building the songs on "So Beautiful or So What". He wrote songs at home before developing them further in the studio with the help of a natural click track, such as "a percussion instrument, or even just tapping out a rhythm on