Album Review: Paul Simon - Graceland 25th Anniversary Edition

The importance of this album escaped me when released all those years ago. Simon's career was well established yet the failure of his previous album helped him find this new direction, which of cours proved so successful. The politics he found himself involved with had more to do with the times than the actual music and its heritage. With the wisdom of hindsight, it's easy to see how the music and the message has survived. Graceland is a brilliant melding of pop sensibility with the best of the African music scene.

This new release is a reminder of those wonderful hits, among them You Can Call Me Al, which had the hilarious video with Chevy Chase – even though the song is a silly ditty it does feature some great musicianship. It's the songs like Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes and Homeless that get closer to the mark as a statement against racism and poverty. Simon manages to bring the commercial nature of popular culture into a new world of African culture and vice versa. It really is a brilliant moment in the history of pop music.

The package includes the documentary, which really helps explain how the project was conceived and then made a reality. The amount of thought and pre-production for the project is quite amazing. The extra bonuses of live performances are all outstanding and fascinating. Graceland is the perfect album to be reissued and deserves as much praise as possible, all these years later.