Uploaded April 2010 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The May, 1978 issue of STEREO REVIEW listed WATERMARK as Album of the Month and published a review in an article entitled, "Garfunkel Sings Webb: A Fusion of Two Major Talents Produces an Album to Be Proud Of." Here are a few excerpts:
Art Garfunkel sings eleven Jimmy Webb songs better than anyone else has so far. Garfunkel has exactly the right spare, intelligent vocal style for Webb's intense, deeply felt lyrics and the nonchalant but enormously secure musicianship the elusive music demands. In song after song Art Garfunkel brings to performing completion the work of one of America's best writers of popular music.
If there is a single high point in the album it is probably Garfunkel's performance of Webbs' 1972 song "Mr. Shuck 'n' Jive", in which the acid of the lyrics etches a portrait of an angry loser. Garfunkel manages to infuse Webb's lyrics with a generous compassion that makes sense of, and gives heart to,... the lines. Another fine job is done on "Crying in My Sleep", in which Garfunkel creates the fluorescent light burning at three o'clock in the morning atmosphere of emptiness and futility, all that is left of a burned-out love affair. But it is the fusion of the two major talents, Garfunkel and Webb, in everything that is done here that gives the album its glow. "All My Love's Laughter" and "Watermark", seem to be fresher than anything I've heard all year, and for these alone Garfunkel would deserve a large measure of our gratitude.
So, hurray for everybody - Garfunkel, Webb, and most of all, the listener. Watermark is a truly distinguished effort and an album of which everyone involved can be enormously proud.
The May, 1978 issue of STEREO REVIEW listed WATERMARK as Album of the Month and published a review in an article entitled, "Garfunkel Sings Webb: A Fusion of Two Major Talents Produces an Album to Be Proud Of." Here are a few excerpts:
Art Garfunkel sings eleven Jimmy Webb songs better than anyone else has so far. Garfunkel has exactly the right spare, intelligent vocal style for Webb's intense, deeply felt lyrics and the nonchalant but enormously secure musicianship the elusive music demands. In song after song Art Garfunkel brings to performing completion the work of one of America's best writers of popular music.
If there is a single high point in the album it is probably Garfunkel's performance of Webbs' 1972 song "Mr. Shuck 'n' Jive", in which the acid of the lyrics etches a portrait of an angry loser. Garfunkel manages to infuse Webb's lyrics with a generous compassion that makes sense of, and gives heart to,... the lines. Another fine job is done on "Crying in My Sleep", in which Garfunkel creates the fluorescent light burning at three o'clock in the morning atmosphere of emptiness and futility, all that is left of a burned-out love affair. But it is the fusion of the two major talents, Garfunkel and Webb, in everything that is done here that gives the album its glow. "All My Love's Laughter" and "Watermark", seem to be fresher than anything I've heard all year, and for these alone Garfunkel would deserve a large measure of our gratitude.
So, hurray for everybody - Garfunkel, Webb, and most of all, the listener. Watermark is a truly distinguished effort and an album of which everyone involved can be enormously proud.
