The Best of Simon & Garfunkel

by

Simon & Garfunkel

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Now that this Best Of has been released, one has pretty much all the Simon And Garfunkel one truly needs. This is not to say that the rest of the songs they recorded were bad--for the most part, they weren't--but nearly every vital cut is here. The collection ignores their interesting but formative debut folk album (not a big miss, except perhaps for the bittersweet title track "Wednesday Morning 3 AM"), and skimps a little on the sophomore effort "Sounds Of Silence" (I would definitely have included "April Come She Will" and "Kathy's Song") but every other major classic on the next three groundbreaking releases is here, including a bonus live version of the incandescent "For Emily" and the lost mid-70s reunion "My Little Town". Listening to all these songs in one shot--with superb remastered sound quality--reminds one of just how important these two guys were to the face of American pop music, no matter how many times you've heard the songs on classic-rock radio. Even supposedly dated cuts like "59th Street Bridge Song" and "At The Zoo" come off as joyous and essential. Of course, if you're a Simon And Garfunkel buff you'll probably want to get all of the albums plus the 3-disc box set, which would not be a bad idea. But with the exception of the two or three missing early songs listed above, this is one of the finest "Best Of" collections one can purchase, and supercedes 1972's Greatest Hits by some way (ah, the bonuses of 77-minute CD running times!).

I know that relative to the other Greatest Hits album, the sound quality here is better but it's still very poor compared to what other remastered albums out there sound like. To be fair to the record company, nowhere on the cd does it say "remastered". It just says mastered by Vic Anesini. Let's hope they truly remaster this album soon by unearthing a much better master tape from the vaults. Volume levels are very low and although cleaner than the old versions, the overall sound is quite ordinary. Other than that, the track selections are very good and truly represent the best work that this dynamic duo have done. Simply great harmonies and great examples of brilliant songwriting on every track.