Bridge Over Troubled Water

Took me 3 full listens of this album to start appreciating it. And I liked it. Good melodies. Probably just not the genre I listen to the most. It's kind of a folk pop rock. I knew that there was something there and I found it

Had the chorus of baby driver stuck in my head all morning, too many classics to ignore

Not my favorite Simon and G-Funk album.

The title track is a nice song, but the performance on tape here is not something I enjoy. El Condor Pasa is good. Never really cared for Cecilia. Then there is just a lot of mid fluff— Keep the Customer Satisfied, So Long Frank Lloyd Wright, Baby Driver, The Only Living Boy in New York.

Okay, The Boxer is an amazing song, can't argue with that.

But what's with the clapping on Bye Bye Love?

Song for the Asking is nice, but at 1:49 it's too little, too late.

Jamais écouté avant.

Bridge Over Troubled Water est un monument aux excès du perfectionnisme en musique. Il ne viendrait à personne l'idée de contester le talent de songwriter de Paul Simon, qui ici comme ailleurs dans sa discographie, est entièrement perceptible. Mais à force de passer des dizaines, voire des centaines d'heure, à peaufiner le moindre morceau, à éliminer la moindre imperfection et à rajouter couche sur couche d'arrangements d'un goût pas toujours très affirmé, le résultat, c'est un disque certes brillant, mais lisse et ennuyeux au possible, tout en étant grandiloquent à en crever... Comme si, à force de vouloir emmener ses racines folk ailleurs, Paul Simon avait oublié que c'est dans la confrontation sans intermédiation ni coquetteries superflues entre un songwriter et l'auditeur que se loge toute la puissance émotionnelle de la folk. Sans oublier qu'à force de vouloir y injecter l'ensemble de ses inspirations du moment, l'album ressemble plus à une compilation un peu disjointe, de la musique traditionnelle péruvienne au gospel, du folk rock mélo au rockabilly acoustique, qu'à une véritable œuvre cohérente. Une vraie déception, donc.

Top : The Boxer
Flop : Bye Bye Love

The more chopped the artist, the better the music.

bom, pelo menos veio rápido e na ordem certinha os albuns deles. que doideira.

enfim. é bem na linha do bookends, ou seja, uns arranjos bonitos e umas músicas bem boas, hein. acho que eh um bom álbum pra finalizar a história do duo. enfim, aprendi a apreciar essa fase final deles. achei bacana!

The title track is so overblown and overplayed, but the rest of the album is perfectly pleasant. Very hummable, but not exactly essential.

Very good album. The Title track will always be my favorite.

Standout tracks: Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cecilia, The Boxer

Ekte klassiker. Solid med Simon & Garfunkel i bunnen, og låter enormt med bandet rundt. Instrumenteringen er nøye utvalgt, det er nesten like mye gåsehud å vente på trommen på "The Boxer" eller koringen på "The Only Living Boy In New York" som å faktisk høre det. Når man hyrer inn musikere istedet for å starte band er det vel lettere å ha en som tålmodig venter på sin tur heller enn å ha en trommeslager som alltid skraper på døra for å få sette mer preg på låtene. Men det er less is more. Faktisk er låtene med fullt band gjennom hele låta også blant de svakere. "Why Don't You Write Me"? Filler. "Baby Driver"? I grenseland.

"Bye Bye Love"-coveren høres litt ut som et bonusspor og live-klappingen er litt masete. Det kommer bardust på og samsvarer egentlig ikke med resten av plata. Egentlig burde den gått rett til "Song For the Asking". Men jeg syns ikke det er nok til å vippe den ned fra femmeren. Jeg klarer 3 min med Everly Brothers, og det er jo en slags avslutning på samarbeidet deres. Jo, den åpenbare teksten som sier "Bye", men også med tanke på hvor mye Everly Brothers betydde for dem og inspirerte dem, så kan jeg forsone meg med at de ønsket å avslutte med starten.

great album and great moustache

almost perfect

Some of this is very beautiful but I wasn’t enthralled the whole way through.

Simon and Garfunkle sounds like the name of a children's book about a child who makes friends with a strange simple creature. Maybe that's not too far from the truth.

4/5. Despite being their most iconic album, if I were to rank the 5 main Simon and Garfunkel records, Bridge over Troubled Water would find itself second to last. Which mainly has to do with the ending portion of the album. The A-side however is pretty much perfect. The opening title track has what might be Art Garfunkels best vocal performance, “El-Condor Pasa” has a very fun and distinct instrumental, “Keep the Customer Satisfied” is a horn-laced banger. “Cecilia” is also great, though I have always found the fact that Cecilia cheats on him in his own bedroom to be hilarious. I also love “So Long Frank Lloyd Wright” with its beautiful flute passages.

However the best song here, and a contender for S&G’s best song is “The Boxer.” That build and those snare hits still gives me chills every time. And to get that loud/intense snare sound they hit the drum in front of an open elevator shaft.

The album continues on well up until “the only living boy in New York”, but then I feel like the album does lost some steam in its last leg. There’s a random live cover of the Everly Brothers “By Bye Love”, which is a bit of a full-circle moment for S&G considering how much their music was influenced by them, but it does also feel out of place on this album. And “Song for the Asking” and “why don’t you write me” are both just okay.

Despite my mixed feelings on the last leg, Bridge Over Troubled water is still a great album and a great send off for the duo before they began their many decades of hating each-other.

Zzzzzzzz + Frank Lloyd Wright mi je najmrži arhitekta iz ličnih razloga.

This one is so good. Some of my most favourite songs of all time are on this album. But there are some boring ones too, so not sure if I can give it the full 5.
4.5/5

Classic … and thank you to whoever pointed out the hidden moustache 🤣

Didn’t think much of it but I tolerated it. I’m giving this 4 stars.

I like the deepcuts here more than the break out songs. El condor pasa and Baby Driver are my favorites off this album. Simon & Garfunkel have a lot of brilliant stuff, this feels like it’s a bit more 70’s thrift store vibe though. The popular songs on here are a bit overplayed for me at this point.

It's hard to deny what a classic this is when 10 out of 11 songs appear on a 2 disc The Very Best of Simon & Garfunkel album I got 25 years ago ("Why Don't You Write Me" is the only omission FYI). Listening now, I’m still blown away by the ambition and emotion here. From the soaring vocals and strings on the title track, which still gives me goosebumps, to the huge build-up in "The Boxer", Paul Simon is at the top of his game. It’s such a cool mix of styles, too, moving from the Andean vibes of "El Condor Pasa" to the energy of "Cecilia".

Are there a couple of clunky moments? Sure. The live version of "Bye Bye Love" feels a bit out of place with all the crowd noise, and some of the slower stuff can be a little sleepy. But you also get hit with the perfection of "The Only Living Boy In New York" and those gripes just vanish. You can practically feel the tension of their impending breakup in the production, but it somehow makes the whole thing feel like a cathartic, triumphant send-off. Flaws and all, this is a masterpiece.

Five stars, no question. Anything else would be slander, libel, words you never heard in the bible...