Review Summary: Sound of amazing!
Greatest hit albums are rather a funny thing. They're supposed to contain the best of the best of the artist they represent. But more often than not, they get less publicity than the actual studio albums. Why is this? Because one of the biggest issues with "greatest hit" albums is that they don’t contain the right tracks. They also tend to put some of the right tracks in the wrong order. So when you pick up a greatest hit album, you're going to see one of two things. Either A: 10-13 tracks of songs that you may not even like from the artist, and it doesn’t have your favorites. Or B: a 20-30 track album that has the best songs and a ton of irrelevant content, and it’s all in the wrong order. But with Simon and Garfunkel’s' greatest hits, these problems are not present at all. This album is 100% correct.
Surely you'd expect the artists to get it right; you'd think it's as if they know exactly what you prefer for an album like this. It's as if the two men reached right into every fan's soul, and found out exactly what they'd expect from a piece like this. Sure, this album may contain a ton of tracks, but with the perfection achieved in this record, it hardly even matters, and what’s even more magnificent than that, is that they all seem to be in proper order of favor. When the album starts with "Sound of Silence", it automatically became apparent to me that this album was going headstrong into success. Occasionally, more obscure tracks tend to waltz in and take an amazing path with their sound, and lyrical genius. But otherwise, some of the most popular tracks ever to exist, including mainstream magnets like "Mrs. Robinson" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" flow right into place in this album.
The compiling of this album is of high significance. The sounds That Simon and Garfunkel created way back in their day have only been enhanced in this masterpiece. Every instrument, every harmony, every lyric is crisp and clean. Simon's acoustic guitar has never sounded better than in songs like "Homeward Bound" and "I Am a Rock", and Garfunkel’s harmonies are put to perfection in "The 59th Street Bridge Song". Not to mention the lyrical duet's that are done in songs like "Scarborough Fair" and "Cecilia", which only solidify my point in how great these recordings sound. Even the live track "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" is presented phenomenally. On top of the acoustic guitar and excellent melodies that automatically make this duo a complete classic, come the bass and drums, and occasional piano, and other various instruments. These instruments don’t really "make" the tracks in this album, but they do offer wide varieties of enjoyment for the songs they do show up in. "The Dangling Conversation", which is arguably the best song in this album, has a lot of good examples of how these various instruments work together to craft a masterpiece, as does "Scarborough Fair".
Simon And Garfunkel, masters of folk, masters of music in general, masters of lyrics, no, poetry, have in their vault of excellence, one of the best "The Best of" albums in history. The tracks in here have been recorded beautifully; the TRUE best songs by a classic group have been put here to bring back the best memories while they were on tour. A truly beautiful experience that any fan of Simon and Garfunkel will enjoy, any folk fan in general will love this. Just to put simply, a must have.
