71. Simon and Garfunkel | Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966)

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Wikipedia Entry

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Tracks

1. Scarborough Fair/Canticle
2. Patterns
3. Cloudy
4. Homeward Bound
5. The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
6. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
7. The Dangling Conversation
8. Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall
9. A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)
10. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
11. A Poem on the Underground Wall
12. 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night

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Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is a lyrical album. The music is pleasant, soothing, and catchy. The lyrics seem clever and thoughtful. However, the songs also border on being vacuous and uninspiring–a lot of much ado about nothing.

I'm just not sure about this album. The songs seem to be very intellectual, but the more I listen to it, the more they sound like a poor man's Bob Dylan. At first, the songs sound very intellectual and enlightened, but then there seems to be pointless.

7 O'Clock News/Silent News captures the essence of the album really well. Sure, juxtapose a bad day's newscast with the lyrics of Silent News and it sounds profound, but there's nothing enlightening about that. Sure, life is terrible and life is beautiful, at the same time, no less. Humans have known that for millenia. Where's the insight into why?

The stand out songs are Scarborough Fair/Canticle, Homeward Bound, The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), and The Dangling Conversation.

★★★★★★ ☆☆☆☆