Monday, 10 July 2017

Paul Simon - The Concert In Hyde Park


Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent live album



This is a fine live recording.  It is in two halves; the first half is very good and the second half is absolutely stunning.

Disc 1, the first half of the concert, is a very good performance of some of Paul Simon's greatest hits – which is all you need to know, really.  The man has written and performed some of the very greatest songs of the last 50 years and these are fine performances, including some nice duetting with Jimmy Cliff.  However, it's the second half that makes this really special, I think.

The great bulk of Part 2 is a performance of the Graceland album with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joseph Shabalala, Hugh Masekela and the original Graceland band.  It is quite brilliant; great material, of course, but superb performances, too, full of brilliant musicianship, great singing and genuine, moving power and emotion.  It is rare for me to find a live performance as good as or better than a studio original, but this is at least as good as the original Graceland album for me.  It is followed by some more magnificent Simon classics, of which my highlight is a breathtaking version of The Sound Of Silence, beautifully sung solo by Paul accompanied by just a wonderfully played single guitar.  It's quite spellbinding and gives me goosebumps every time I hear it – even more than half a century on from first hearing the song.

The sound quality throughout is excellent and the engineers do a fine job of balancing the crowd noise to convey the excitement of the live concert but never interfering with the music itself; it's never an easy balance to strike but it's perfect here, I think.

I'm not always a great fan of live albums but this is a real beauty.  It's up there with Paul Simon's best recordings, I think – which is really saying something.  Very, very warmly recommended.

No comments:

Post a Comment