Search - Simon & Garfunkel :: Sounds of Silence (Exp)

The Pinnacle of Folk Pop/Rock

Trimac20 | Perth, WA, Australia | 05/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album lacked the self-aggrandazing bombast of 'Bridge Over Trouble Water' (which I hold was a little too comfortable with its brilliance, although with a touch more humility than the Beatles Sgt. Pepper), but more importantly, I don't see it as a rawer sketch of Bridge Over Troubled Water of the work Simon and Garfunkel produced in between, but I believe this IS their definitive statement, their magnum opus. What I like most is Simon's atatention to melody and music AS well as the lyrics. It did not revel in its own lyrical cleverness like Dylan, yet the lyric messages were poignant and well developed and despite the simplicity never lacked thematic depth. So redolent of the times, this was a coherently brilliantly album that shoots through the mush of drab 'folk rock' clones like a flashlight in the dark."

HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND....

wally gator | USA | 12/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always declared myself as a non Simon and Garfunkel fan. Meaning, for the most part, they do nothing for me. But I won't say that there isn't a time and place for everything. Sometimes Simon and Garfunkel are just whats needed. If so, then I would have to make this Simon and Garfunkel album the one. The Sounds Of Silence.



That title track has always put me on hold when I hear it. For the two minute duration, I freeze. Even when I was really young, I could see the beauty in this song.



Now every so often I go visit some friends of mine in the city. Usually when I do this (I gotta take two trains to get there)I end up spending the night, because navigating my way back becomes way too much of a process. These friends of mine never seem to be able to keep up with my pace of steady beer drinking until the sun comes up, and at some point in the night, I will find myself alone in the living room, still drinking whats left of my beers, and rummaging through the records. On a particularly drunken evening, I threw this album on the turntable and cranked it... I realized that the title track is only the beggining. Just about every song is just as, if not more so, beautiful than the first.



There is a fine mix of style here, and really (in my opinion of course), the best showcase of the Simon and Garfunkel talents with rich accompianment and solid harmonies. I can smell the attic dust on the record cover just thinking about it but you will love it if you are at least fifteen beers deep on those dank nights."