It's a scandal that Sony Music's American catalog only offers a late '80s vintage compilation of
Art Garfunkel's music, limited to 12 songs and indifferently mastered even by the standards of the time; meanwhile, Sony's British catalog has released this 20-song collection which, though it's not perfect, does offer upgraded sound along with a solid cross-section of
Garfunkel's best work across 25 years of solo music-making. There are holes, to be sure, and not every track off of the U.S. best-of is represented -- where are "All I Know" and "Two Sleepy People," to name but two? -- but at least it's a step in the right direction for an artist who is deserving of the respect implicit in an ambitious release of this kind. Though the absent songs are, indeed, very much missed, the clean, bright mastering of "I Believe," "Disney Girls," "She Moved Through the Fair," "Watermark," "Break Away," "Miss You Nights," and "Crying in the Rain" makes this worth picking up, at least until Sony Music gets around to upgrading its American catalog. The clarity and crispness, and the vivid textures bring out a greater, silky purity in
Garfunkel's voice than has ever before been evident on CD, and a presence to the accompaniment that leaves one more impressed than ever with these tracks as an art form in themselves, very much like
Simon & Garfunkel's post-1965 productions. There is no annotation to speak of, but the quality of the audio justifies this disc -- if someone were to come up with a double-CD set that combined the non-overlapping tracks from this, Up 'Til Now, and the U.S. best-of in this quality, that would be the only
Garfunkel package anyone needed. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
