The Paul Simon Album(Broadway Sings The Best Of Paul Simon)

Don't get me wrong - I adore Broadway musicals, and the performers on this CD are not untalented. I also think Paul Simon is one of the musical geniuses of the late 20th/early 21st century. But his songs are subtle, occasionally abstruse, and witty in a sly, understated way. Asking Broadway-style singers to tackle his repertoire is akin to asking a knuckleball pitcher to paint the outside corner of the plate - one requires an entirely different discipline than the other. The stock in trade of the Broadway performer is immediate, in-your-face emotion... something for which Simon's songs are ill-suited. The beauty of a Paul Simon song is how its seeming impassivity quietly works its way into your psyche, until you suddenly realize that he's uncovered a subliminal truth. There's something deeply human and breathtakingly honest couched in all those clever words and images - but it's the kind of thing that's revealed only with a delicate touch, as opposed to a sledgehammer. A Broadway-style approach doesn't reveal those elusive truths so much as beat the stuffing out of them.