Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence

Sounds of Silence 

Best song: The Sound of Silence

Worst song: Anji

Grade: 4

I hate giving this a 4, I really do, because I have so much history with it. Simon & Garfunkel are the band that really got me interested in music – I heard the songs ‘I Am a Rock’ and ‘The Sound of Silence’ and I was completely blown away, because I didn’t know music could sound like that, safe in my bubble of McFly and Busted. The next day I walked down to the shops and into HMV, and making sure nobody was looking, I searched to see if they had any Simon & Garfunkel. They did; this one, and so it was the first CD I ever bought for myself.

Course, that means every single song has a lot of nostalgia for me, but looking at it with critical eyes, it’s patchy. The almost-title track is outstanding, of course, with the way it starts off so quiet and intimate with Paul Simon almost whispering the first line, and builds up all the way to the crescendo of ‘And the sign said the words of the prophets were written on the subway walls…’ Yeah, a classic. ‘Leaves That Are Green’ is folky and fun, but without the substance that’s present in their best work. ‘Blessed’ is an attempt at being a bit more harder-rocking, and while it’s not a total failure, it feels a bit awkward at times, like they’re not quite comfortable with the style.

Then we come to Kathy’s Song, which has a gorgeous melody, but disappointingly lacks any Art Garfunkel, and I firmly believe that Simon and Garfunkel were both at their best when they worked together. 'Somewhere They Can't Find Me' just annoys me, since it's an ugly, inferior reworking of the song 'Wednesday Morning, 3A.M.' on their debut, with a radio chorus added. I never used to like 'Anji' back when I was generally against instrumentals, but now that I really love a good instrumental track... I still don't like it. It's a pointless piece of filler and an album this short (not even 30 minutes!) really can't afford to have any filler. 368

The first two tracks on Side 2, 'Richard Cory' and 'A Most Peculiar Man', are both about men who commit suicide, which is a cheerful subject on the sunny day that I'm writing this. The arrangements are very different, though, with the first an upbeat, guitar-based, poppy number, and the second a slow, thoughtful ballad. They're both very good in their own way, though. But it's downhill from there with the boring 'April Come She Will' and 'We've Got A Groovy Thing Going', a song which would be much improved on with the later '59th Street Bridge Song.'

Luckily, the end of the album is raised far above these two with the second classic here, 'I Am A Rock'. It’s perfect in the way it looks at social alienation, but not so much in a negative way. It still manages to be fun and bouncy and in an ironic way, it feels like a song that can unite people.

'Sounds of Silence' is definitely worth listening to if you're a big fan of the later work, and certainly has its moments, but I wouldn't advise starting here – they would go on to make far more consistent, and possible far more daring, albums than this one.