Day 0263 - Paul Simon

Paul Simon "Paul Simon" (1972)

While the last Simon and Garfunkel release had to all intents and purposes been a Paul Simon solo album, with Garfunkel away shooting 'Catch 22' while the majority of the writing and pre-production took place.  That album, however, still sounded like Simon and Garfunkel.  With his self titled album, Paul really stretches his wings and samples music from across the spectrum, with some familiar folky sounds being juxtaposed against a reggae track, and a track with Django Reinhardt collaborator Stephane Grappelli providing some fantastic violin playing.

This is the sort of solo album that I like to hear.  An artist stretching outside of the confines of their previous band instead of just retracing the same territory, and this diverse approach to music would continue onto Simons' magnum opus (that everyone's mum or dad owns ) "Graceland".