Bookends
by Simon & Garfunkel

From paladisiac TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/08/2011 22:27 | #32316 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is yet another great folk pop album from S&G. Maybe they go a little overboard with effects (like how the gospel-like vocals are piped in in "save the life of my child" and the voices in "voices of old people" go on a little long), but the album is still great regardless and feels BIG overall, from the cymbal flourishes in "america" to the pipe organ and strings in "fakin' it".
"punky's dilemma" has a fun line about blueberry jam my wife digs ("I prefer boysenberry / More than any ordinary jam. / I'm a "Citizens for / Boysenberry Jam" fan."). The last three songs are probably the best last 3 closers on any S&G disc -- "mrs. robinson", "a hazy shade of winter" (i probably still prefer the bangles version) and "at the zoo" -- the last of which sounds like a kids zoo tale but is lyrically bleak where the animals are dumb, insincere, skeptical, reactionary and plot in secrecy while the zookeeper drinks his rum. (Edited)

From sszwalbenest 07/10/2013 23:51 | #81024 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Old Friends is one of their best works. Still get the chills when I hear the line "silently sharing the same fear" (Edited)

From sszwalbenest 08/22/2015 22:28 | #148285 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

To me this is a sort of concept album dealing with a midlife crisis and reconciling lost youth. Though I may have overthought it (I've listened to this about a hundred times by now) it does make the album a lot more meaningful. (Edited)

A superb Simon and Garfunkel album. As always with S&G records it contains some excellent tracks. Mrs. Robinson, hazy shade of winter, and the absolutely stunning, America, are the pick of the bunch, with the title track also particularly nice. Garfunkel's, voices of old people, is a bit pointless, but the album is in a sense a concept album of aging and friendship. Paul Simon is one of the greatest songwriters in the history of popular music and this is another one of his special recordings. Excellent. (Edited)

From Bork TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/24/2011 05:04 | #33640 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I'm gonna have to disagree a bit here. This one includes Paul & Art's two best recordings together in Mrs. Robinson and Hazy Shade of Winter but other than that there isn't much to jump for on it. Not bad but somewhat dull. Still worth the price of admission for those two.