★★★★★
Track Listing: The Paul Simon Song Book
I Am A Rock; Leaves That Are Green; A Church Is Burning; April Comes She Will; The Sound of Silence; A Most Peculiar Man; He Was My Brother; Kathy's Song; The Side Of A Hill; A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission); Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall; Patterns; I Am A Rock (bonus, alternate version); A Church Is Burning (bonus, alternate version)...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2014-01-11
★★★★★
Coinciding with the release of Paul Simon: The Complete Albums Collection, Over the Bridge of Time: A Paul Simon Retrospective is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the novice Simon appreciator needs a place to start appreciating. On the other, there's no way to sum up such a dynamic career on one disc. Sony Legacy tries to pull off this feat, but let's face it. Big labels look at money over art. Sales over significance...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-11-25
★★★★★
When they say that the new released boxed set highlighting the work of Paul Simon is The Complete Albums Collection by Paul Simon, they're not kidding. 15 discs of material are included, including all his studio albums following the separation of Simon and Garfunkel, two live sets, and The Paul Simon Song Book, an interesting album from 1965 that features Paul on solo versions of "I Am A Rock, "The Sound Of Silence," and other songs that he would go on to record with Artie...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-10-16
★★★★★
Given that eight of these 14 albums have already been reissued in the last two years - 1972's self-titled sophomore album through to 1990's The Rhythm Of The Saints in 2011; then there was last year's bumper Graceland campaign - and that Simon's artistic resurgence over three 21st-century albums will still be fairly fresh in fans' memories, what can the three remaining albums in this £90 box set offer?
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-10-10
★★★★★
It's been a quarter century since Graceland's release, and the world is a vastly different place. Apartheid is over. Nelson Mandela is free. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, formerly famous only in the black villages of South Africa, have become world-renowned, recognized as readily by the couch potatoes who've heard the group on TV commercials for 7 Up, Lifesavers and Heinz ketchup as traditional fans of world music...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
This year has seen Paul Simon revisiting his classic Graceland album at large-scale outdoor shows, with as many as two dozen supporting players on stage at times. His concerts from 2011, promoting his most recent studio set So Beautiful Or So What, were more modest affairs, none more so that this intimate gig at Manhattan's 1,200-capacity Webster Hall...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
Though this commemorative edition of Simon's most celebrated and controversial solo album hits stores a year after the anniversary of its title, it does coincide with 25 years since the accompanying tour that saw the singer confronted by protestors outside venues. His decision to record parts of the record in South Africa, thereby flouting a cultural boycott at the time of Apartheid, is still a contentious issue for many, but it doesn't diminish the power of the music...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
During 1986 and 1987 the pop music landscape was breathtaking and far more varied than anyone gives it credit for. Many dismiss it for being an era that relished big melodies and crystalline production aesthetics, but what made the latter part of the 1980's so enlivening was how much divergent and diverse music there was to get lost in...
- www.antimusic.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
What in the world is pop music going to do when Paul Simon goes away? He turns 71 in a couple weeks, so this is a question that needs to be asked sooner rather than later...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-10-04