Simon & Garfunkel – Sounds of Silence (Columbia 1966)

Simon & Garfunkel are so well known and so legendary that it’s practically impossible to write something new or original about their music. I won’t try either. What I will say, is that I love this album to death. It features everything that was so great about them: Incredible songwriting, melodies that are impossible to forget, and not at least wonderful singing. Every single song on this album is a classic. We’re all familiar with the title track, that is also the opening song on this record. Even though I’ve heard it a million times, I still don’t get bored with it. I guess the reason is the incredibly haunting atmosphere they create in this song, and the way they play with light and darkness. But my personal favourites on the album are the lesser known tracks, and especially ‘Somewhere They Can’t Find Me’ and ‘A Most Peculiar Man’. The former is among their most rock-oriented tracks ever (I guess that doesn’t say much, but still…), with its driving rhythm and powerful vocal performance. The latter is an incredibly sad song, about this guy who lives alone in his apartment and doesn’t want to be bothered by other people at all. He is one of many people that just goes under the radar throughout life, and then one day it’s all over. Then people that happened to live nearby him, ask themselves: ‘Wasn’t he a most peculiar man?’ ‘Kathy’s Song’ and ‘April Come She Will’ are other gems, and then we have ‘Homeward Bound’. Ok, so I don’t really need to listen to that one anymore in my life, but I still do it – as this album must be listened to in its entirety. And who can deny it’s a classic song anyway? The album ends with the well known ‘I Am A Rock’, that of course is another classic – driving and rock oriented as it is by their standards, but with sad undertones too. This is often the case with Simon & Garfunkel: Their songs are simple on the surface, but more complex underneath. Simon & Garfunkel are of course not folk rock like Steeleye Span or Pentangle, but it’s nonetheless classic folk, and deserves to be recognized as that too. Timeles stuff.