This box set containing the remastered, expanded editions of all five of
Simon & Garfunkel
's original LPs on five CDs just -- but only just -- misses a top rating, by virtue of its packaging. The sound is, as with the individual editions of each title, a significant improvement over any prior releases of this material and proves to be utterly impeccable, and the annotated booklet, containing the original credits and notes off the albums as well as the lyrics and all of the new annotation for each individual album by
Bud Scoppa
, is fairly handy. The problem is the packaging of the individual discs in miniature recreations of the original LP jackets, which are somewhat awkwardly stowed in one side of the box interior -- unless they're lined up perfectly, however, they will come out of that receptacle; additionally, as there are no inner sleeves for the CDs in their miniature jackets (a necessity and a courtesy provided by the Japanese when they issue CDs in miniature LP sleeves), it's easy for them to slide out of their jackets and get scratched and dinged even prior to purchase and opening. It's a shame that
Columbia
went to this kind of trouble in remastering and preparing this edition without seeing to such obvious details, and the result is a 50 dollar box set that is more inconvenient than it needed to have been. ~ Bruce Eder