SIMON & GARFUNKEL - SOUNDS OF SILENCE Price: €14.99 Format: Compact Disc Availability: Immediate Dispatch

Though it was their second album, SOUNDS OF SILENCE was the record that introduced Simon & Garfunkel to the world at large. When the original, acoustic version of the title tune (included on the debut album) was given a rock sheen here, courtesy of a hastily added electric backing track, folk-rock was invented, and Paul and Art were catapulted to superstardom. The songs here follow in that electrified direction for the most part, with the widescreen irony of "Blessed" buoyed by plangent guitar and drums, and the paranoid "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" pushed to neurotic extremes by an insistent rhythm section.
SOUNDS OF SILENCE marked the introduction proper of Simon as sensitive song poet: intellectual, well-read, politely iconoclastic, self-consciously poetic--the perfect '60s folk-pop idol. Fortunately, Simon's melodic and lyrical prowess and the duo's beautiful post-Everly Brothers harmonies were enough to counteract any intrinsic tendencies toward pretension. From the romantic melodrama of "Kathy's Song" to the anthem of alienation "I Am a Rock", SOUNDS OF SILENCE was the ultimate sonic portrait of the artist as a young man. Somewhere, a young Morrissey was taking notes.