Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends (Top 500 Countdown Update)

I've always thought of this as two albums in one. You have side 1 and 2 and they don't necessarily go that well together, but song for song this is a very powerful album that doesn't have many that can match it. This is the peak of Simon & Garfunkel with the beautiful soft sounds of their early stuff and the explosive sound of their later stuff and early Paul Simon. A song like "Punky's Dilemma" shows the growth of Simon who was able to take a fun silly lyric and put it with a wonderful melody and music and make it work. It's his growth with music that makes this album really shine, and it's the way it ties back to their older sound that really makes it the best Simon & Garfunkel you will find. A comment here that "America" is one of the greatest songs ever made, and that carries a lot of weight for this album. If you have never sat down and listened to this one, throw it on the stereo sometime when you are cleaning up the house on a Saturday afternoon, you'll fall for it in a big way.