Simon & Garfunkel split after their debut record, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, failed to make much headway in terms of sales - Paul Simon split for London to begin a solo career, and Art Garfunkel finished his studies at Columbia University. During this time, though, Columbia producer Tom Wilson overdubbed an electric band over their song "The Sounds of Silence" and released it as a new single - it became a sudden massive hit, and reunited the duo for the first of a handful of times. The resulting album born of these new sessions, the aptly named Sounds of Silence, is both a capitalization on the single's hot success and the red-hot market for folk rock that was sparked by The Byrds and Bob Dylan - all roads lead back to Zimmerman. While the new songs on this record certainly are exciting and a major step up from most of the material on Wednesday Morning, I can't help but feel that a pure folk rock sound isn't the best sound for the duo. Still, it's a consist folk rock album if nothing less, and Paul Simon's brilliant songwriting has plenty of room to stretch and breathe with Garfunkel's light and glorious tenor.
More than half of the album's songs had, if you can believe it or not, already been released. You of course have "The Sound of Silence," now overdubbed, but five other songs had previously been released on Paul Simon's brilliant solo debut, The Paul Simon Songbook. The renditions on this album are, if nothing, comparable in quality to the versions on his debut. "April Come She Will" is a beautiful tune, and while Paul Simon's version certainly did it justice, Art Garfunkel's beautiful singing certainly fits the mood of the song better. "Kathy's Song," a love song for Paul Simon's then-girlfriend, is largely the same, but is still a beautiful song nonetheless. "A Most Peculiar Man," "Leaves That Are Green," and "I Am a Rock" have had an electric reworking, and I think that they still work, albeit the isolated and neurotic nature suits itself better to the solo performance on Songbook in my mind - not a bad rendition, but something is kind of lost. This is the part where I mention that while I love me some folk rock, the pure folk outfit on Sounds of Silence doesn't necessarily feel ideal to me for Simon & Garfunkel - while they would eventually find a good balance, this sounds more like a Dylan album at points. None of it is the session players' fault I should say, and it was a real who's who of session players - Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, and Joe Osborn are all on this. Oh yeah. Still, the balance is off, and moments like "Blessed" or the "Wednesday Morning" rehash that is "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" demonstrate this pretty well, even if the latter has some great harmonies.
All of this trashing on folk rock may make me sound like a bitter Dylan fan after Newport '65, but there is plenty to enjoy about this album. The electric "The Sound of Silence" is a little sloppily overdubbed, but it's a pretty galvanizing way to open the record - sure, I may prefer the acoustic version, but this is fun. "Leaves That Are Green" is a lovely song about the passage of time, and Garfunkel's harmonies are wonderful. Paul Simon's perpetuality towards songs of isolation and loneliness are focal points of the album, seen in the great neuroticism of the closer "I Am a Rock," and the two tales of misery and suicide in "A Most Peculiar Man" and "Richard Cory," both of which are strong moments in the album's running. The instrumental "Anji" is the only track here not written by Paul Simon, but it's a great instrumental track that showcases Paul's skill as a guitar player - believe me, this song is hard to play on guitar. "Kathy's Song" is a nice encapsulation of the record at its best - wonderful folk tunes with Paul Simon's rich lyricism to guide you on the path.
Sounds of Silence is certainly a step up in quality from their debut, and it helps that the track listing is loaded with great Paul Simon tunes. Still, Sounds of Silence feels like the sound of a duo that is not quite sure what the future holds, and I find the leaning towards pure folk rock doesn't really suit the duo as well as the sound on future albums - too high energy at points, which is an odd complaint, but one that I think is fitting for Simon & Garfunkel. Luckily, they would iron out these kinks with their next albums, but those are reviews for the future. As it stands, Sounds of Silence could very well serve as the actual start of the Simon & Garfunkel story with a good amount of hits to boot.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Sounds of Silence.
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