How Do You Rank The Five Simon & Garfunkel Albums?

Cosmic Harmony

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Over six years Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel released five studio albums together and with that cemented themselves as one of the most successful duos in all of music, both for their time and still today. At the time of "Wednesday Morning 3 A.M." the group was purely acoustic and with just tight harmonies. By the time of "Bookends", their most experimental album in my opinion, and finally "Bridge Over Troubled Water", their most diverse, they had taken those simple, folk elements and expanded them into a very powerful and dynamic concoction.

So the question I ask now is how do you rank these albums among themselves? Which do you think is their best, second best, and etc all the way down to their least good (notice I say "least good" and not "worst")?
 

Phil B.

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Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Bookends
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Sounds Of Silence
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
 

Jake T

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  1. Bookends
  2. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
  3. Sounds Of Silence
  4. Bridge Over Troubled Waters
  5. Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

The first three are basically tied for #1. Side two of BOTW is a little weak and I don't care much for Wednesday Morning, compared to the others.
 

Cosmic Harmony

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1. Bridge Over Troubled Water- It's probably a bit cliche to pick this album but I haven no doubt that it's their best. It's a perfect marriage of eclecticism, pop melody, and substantial lyrical content.
2. Sound of Silence- I think this is the duo's most somber and/or dark album, which really just bubbles up on a few songs. That aside it tells such vivid stories from unique perspectives and translates them into such universal ways through the power of melody and harmony.
3. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme- This is album I got into Simon & Garfunkel with and it was the first album where they really started to play with different instruments and ideas for how to put the songs on the album, particularly with their rendition of "Silent Night", which is still my favorite version of that song ever.
4. Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.- I have a very special sort of love for this album because it's such a young Paul Simon. He's one of my favorite lyricists and songwriters and with this album he just seemed so innocent and youthful compared to who he grew into. He was certainly a young man who was very aware of the world around him but he hadn't grow into his music style yet and it's so special for me to hear that from him before be became a legend.
5. Bookends- I know this is often times considered one of their best albums but I'm not nearly as wowed by "Bookends" as their other albums. There are some songs I really like it on it but there are more "meh" songs on this one than any of their other albums for me.
 

METALPRIEST

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1. Sounds Of Silence
2. Bookends
3. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
4. Bridge Over Troubled Waters
5. Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
 

Phil B.

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This is a cool poll. I think that S&G often come into peoples lives via open ended spiritual songs.

Don't get me wrong...I don't mean religious songs... I mean Spiritual songs.

In many ways, a lot of these songs are band-aids. I can only speak for myself, but amongst all my family/friends/aquaintences ....S&G is the most recognized.

Not for pop sensibilities, but because they feel a kinship to one song or another.
 

LG

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Have to think about this one, but I can give my favorite record right now, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is first and an all time classic. Probably my favorite Folk record of all time.
 

Sox

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1, Sounds Of Silence
2, Bridge Over Troubled Water
3, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
4, Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.
5, Bookends
 

Sunny

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1. Sound Of Silence
2. Wednesday Morning 3 AM
3. Bridge Over Troubled Water
4. Bookends
5. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
 

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