IDS CLASSIC ALBUMS

Despite what VH1 would have you believe, the '80s weren't so bad after all. At a time when the ass-end of new wave collided with the embarrassingly hedonistic hair metal scene, the demure Paul Simon released his best set of songs since he and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water LP. Frustrated that his songwriting skills hadn't translated so well to the studio since 1975's Still Crazy After All These Years, Simon drew upon his newfound fascination with traditional South African rhythms and vocalizations while enlisting a group of musicians and singers from South Africa to help record Graceland, the most enduring album of Simon's 35-year solo career.\nMusically, Graceland is mostly upbeat, briefly featuring flourishes of zydeco, accordion, synthesizer, sax and even the pennywhistle on "You Can Call Me Al." Mostly, though, the record relies on adept percussion and a steady undercurrent of rhythm guitar. Graceland features many once-prominent South African musicians, such as guitarist Chikapa "Ray" Phiri and bassist Bakiti Kumalo. The album not only popularized world music in the age of Apartheid, but also injected the South African band Ladysmith Black Mambazo (featured on "Homeless") into the American mainstream.\n Simon's lyrics are uniquely poetic throughout, equaling the wordplay in such Simon & Garfunkel classics as "The Sound of Silence" and "A Simple Desultory Philippic," and nearly matching the understated power of "The Only Living Boy in New York." "You Can Call Me Al" was Graceland's biggest hit, and while that track's surreal imagery of 'roly-poly little bat-faced girls' is iconic, the wide-eyed wonder of "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" as well as the humble introspection of "Under African Skies" and the title track resonate much deeper.\nWarner Brothers Records issued a remastered and expanded edition of Graceland in July 2004, complete with a demo version of "Homeless," an unreleased (yet ultimately ineffective) take on "Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes" and an extremely early rendition of the album's closing track. These additions only serve as curiosities, however, since the original LP stands on its own as not only the best set of post-1960s songs Paul Simon ever penned, but also as one of the most lasting and influential records of the 1980s.