‘Graceland’ 25th Anniversary Editions In Stores Now! Read The Reviews

Paul Simon’s “Graceland” 25th anniversary editions are in stores now, and are getting rave reviews! Get your copies of these remastered and expanded editions today! Here are highlights from some of the reviews:

FIVE STARS. This deluxe package includes a luminous remastered version of Paul Simon’s landmark African-pop album, previously unreleased demos, a live concert DVD and a revealing making-of documentary. Recording in apartheid-era South Africa with local musicians was bold; the marriage of township grooves and shapely, revealing songwriting was groundbreaking. It’s hard to even remember the charges of cultural imperialism that greeted Graceland when it was released. Today, the glorious bounce of “Graceland” and “You Can Call Me Al” reminds us that, for all of Simon’s genius with tunes and lyrics, it’s his rhythmic searching and sophistication that sets him apart. – Rolling Stone

It might seem there’d be little left to say about Paul Simon’s watershed 1986 album “Graceland,” which is being reissued today in a deluxe four-disc 25th anniversary box set. … But the new box set does indeed help shed new light on the music and the entire project by way of the various bonus features that now accompany the original album. … Every album may indeed tell a story, but some stories are dramatically more compelling than others. The story of “Graceland” is one of the most compelling in all of pop music. – Los Angeles Times

Paul Simon was touched by magic in the creation of Graceland — nothing about it seems dated. The soldier by the side of the road and a bomb in the marketplace; they’re this week’s headline, pretty much every week. In a corner of the sky, we regularly learn, another constellation is dying. There are many soft-bellied men wondering why their lives are so hard. These are, still, the days of miracle and wonder. And we are, all of us, hoping to be received in Graceland. – The Huffington Post

Few albums are worth the kind of attention that is being given to “Graceland” with this set — but few records are of its stature. It is the album that brought world music to a wide audience, opened eyes around the world to South Africa and sold more than any other Simon solo effort. It’s also one of the greatest recordings ever. – Lincoln Journal Star

SOUTH AFRICA, 1985. Nelson Mandela was in prison, and apartheid had a tumultuous, violent foothold on the country. But it was also the same year that Paul Simon entered into the picture and decided to make a controversial move: Defying a U.N. cultural boycott, Simon flew out to the racially divided nation and began recording with local musicians—simply out of love for South African music. What ensued was a percussive clash between the free-flowing transcendent ideals of the artist and the harsh divisiveness of politics … Simon released his most seminal and commercially successful album of his career to date: Graceland. Listening to the whimsical lyricism and spirited musicality of the tracks, it’s difficult to guess that the birth of the album was created amid such adversity. – Biography