Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Sounds of Silence

Greetings faithful follower(s)! This week I have decided to start a new (possibly) weekly tradition: I will review an album from my vinyl collection. I (of course) already have a spreadsheet of all the albums that I own, and I have put them in random order with the help of the internet, and I will go through them one by one! I will try to give a little information about each album (with the help of Wikipedia) and give my thoughts about it.

First up: Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel.



Release date: January 17, 1966
Singles: The Sounds of Silence (previously released), I Am a Rock

The name of the album obviously comes from their hit single, which had been previously released on their debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. The art work is kind of interesting to me. On the front cover, it appears that Simon and Garfunkel are either being harassed by the trailing photographer or are else looking back as they flee the scene of a crime. The back cover has shots of Simon and Garfunkel in what I can only assume are attempts to look like tough guys, smoking cigarettes and loitering.

The album is pretty much what you'd expect from Simon and Garfunkel: folk rock. One thing that I thought was a little odd was that side 2 opens with back to back songs about a man committing suicide: "Richard Cory" and "A Most Peculiar Man." Actually, in general the album is pretty dark. There isn't a single happy song on this album. Even "We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'" (which the back of the album says was "just for fun") is about that groovy thing leaving Simon and/or Garfunkel's depressed ass. Hello darkness, my old friend indeed.

Rating: 5 thumbs up - It's a solid album. It's not my favorite album of Simon and Garfunkel's, but it's a good listen nonetheless.

Now here's "Richard Cory," which for some reason somebody synched up to The Shawshank Redemption. Enjoy!



Pat is crazy.