Hello darkness, my old friend

Simon & Garfunkel - Greatest Hits - 1972

When it comes to S&G, there's a strange thing that happens to me: I've had this compilation for a long time, and I absolutely love it. But unlike what's happened with many other bands I got to know and like by means of compilations, I have never felt the urge to find the rest of their discography at all. Therefore, Simon & Garfunkel are these 14 songs for me, and that seems to suit me just fine.
This album is a combination of previously released studio versions plus 4 live tracks. The live tracks are actually the least known of the songs here, and it gives the album a special vibe, I think: usually you get to hear only the "greatest hits" in live versions, but here it's quite the opposite.
There's not too much that I can say about the album and its tracks: Most of them are ridiculously well known, and even for people who may not be fans, the talent of Paul Simon as a songwriter is indisputable, and their singing was always brilliant.
As I said, I love this album, and I've come back to it time and time again. There's something special about it, even though I'm not really such a big fan of their style of music. But I think their music has some sort of universal appeal, and that makes this album a must have, regardless of what type of music you like best.
It's in a way like the white shirt, or the black shoes: It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, what you like, there will be moments in your life in which this is exactly what you need to listen to. And probably that's why this compilation has become such a classic that still stands strong after all these years.

• The sound quality of the album feels a bit poor at times, and I'm actually referring to some of the studio tracks. I don't know if the issue was also with the original recordings, and also I don't know if there's been later releases that improved the sound. 
• It's hard to choose favourite tracks here, and most of their biggest tracks are excellent. Out of the slightly less known ones, I think I've always had a soft spot for the traditional English ballad "Scarborough Fair". 
• Out of the most famous ones, it's probably impossible for me to pick between "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and "Sound of Silence". So here's a compromise: "Bridge..." will be here, by S&G, and "Sound.." will be as a bonus, with an amazing cover version.

A river a mountain to be crossed

Yes - Fragile - 1972

Out of all the 1970s prog-rock bands, I'm pretty sure that Yes is the one I have come back the least across the years. I do remember liking them a lot in my early teens, and listening to this album again, I wonder how much of it was really enjoyment, and how much snobbishness. 

Mind you, they were amazing musicians, and there's a constant quality throughout this album, and I guess that's true for most of their releases. 

But they seem to fall for a lot of the prog vices I have mentioned a couple of times with other bands: a tendency to be a bit derivative, with songs that feel like they go nowhere because their only purpose in life is to showcase how damn good the musicians are. 

Musically, it seems to have the same problems I pointed out not too long ago when referring to Nursery Cryme, by Genesis, with the added caveat that I have less patience for Jon Anderson's range than I do for Peter Gabriel's. 

I do have great memories of some of the albums that came along lately, because there was more of an emotional aspect in the songs I could relate to, I think. This one sounds too clinical, too cold.

Still, I guess it's a great album for the bigger fans of progressive rock.

• One of the problems of the album, apart from what I already mentioned, was this thing prog bands would do of devoting half of the album to individual endeavours, out of which I think only Howe's "Mood for a Day" is remotely interesting, having some flamenco style guitars.
• Out of the group songs, I'm choosing "South Side of the Sky", which I actually like quite a lot, even if the mid-section seems a bit too long.  

Yma Sumac - Miracles - 1972

This is probably one of the strangest things you'll see here. 

Yma Sumac was a Peruvian singer that achieved peak fame in the 1950s, and for the most part of her career sang in a traditional Latin style.

What was not traditional or conventional at all was her strange vocal range, which some claim span more than 6 octaves, and while that might be an exaggeration, she clearly was capable of singing in a range of at least 5 octaves, with the highest notes going straight into what's called a "whistle register" and the lowest ones going into contralto territory. 

And after releasing a lot of albums focused on Latin music, she released this one, which is, basically a rock album. Musically, it's very much 1970s rock, and it would be completely forgettable if it wasn't for that strange, very strange voice. 

What turns me off to it a bit is that she never sings lyrics here (she rarely did, apparently), so after a while, this one can be a bit repetitive. 

Still, it's well worth a listen, if only out of curiosity.

• Most of the songs are original and were composed by Les Baxter, there's one cover here, which is "El Condor Pasa", which was, incidentally, remade by Simon & Garfunkel, so I thought it would be a good example to put here. 

Bonus Tracks

• I think I've said it before, I rarely like covers. But sometimes, someone comes along and makes such an amazing cover that blows the whole world apart. This is one of those cases. If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have bet anything that "Sound of Silence" was a perfect song, and that nothing could improve on the S&G version. Then came Disturbed, and found things in the song that I don't think even Paul Simon knew were there. It gives me goosebumps every single time I hear it