Tuesday: The Sound of Silence

The fact that I have such a wide variety of music tastes surprises some people, I think. I listen to a bit of everything - the last album I bought was Does It Offend You, Yeah?, I think Dizzee Rascal is ace, but my favourite album of last year was Lightspeed Champion’s beautiful “Falling off the Lavender Bridge” – an acoustic-y folk-y sort-of-country album. A couple of weeks ago, I downloaded Spotify – a truly brilliant programme, with unlimited free music streaming. It’s set out a bit like iTunes, but you can listen to whatever you want, whenever you want, free of charge! To be honest, I’m still one for buying an album on CD – having the physical copy to hold, the booklet to flick through… But with Spotify it means I can listen to bands that I’ve heard about without having to download it (legally or illegally) first.

When I was surfing around Spotify, I came across a song that I think is one of my favourite songs ever. Its use in the brilliant film “The Graduate” is infamous, and the two, for me, have become synonymous. It is of course Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence. Everything about it – the lyrics, the guitars, the harmonies… the first verse in particular is at once spine chilling, comforting and sublime. For a few days now, I have taken to listening to the original completely acoustic version on a short loop, and it still has every ounce of impact that it did at the start. If you’ve never heard the song, and have never seen The Graduate (which is an absolutely stunning film – it’s funny, heartfelt, and the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack is fantastic), I hope you find the song as life-affirming as I do. I think this will do me for now. Good night, and make sure you watch the video below.