Paul Simon was regarded as one of the most successful rock songwriter and produced several top40 hits since he broke up with his former partner, Art Garfunkel, in 1970. But surprisingly, finding a good collection of Simon's solo works is not easy. One reason is that you cannot fit all his hits and good album tracks into one cd. So single-disc collections always missed one song or another. The multi-disc collection often included his works during Simon & Garfunkel, which left less room for his album tracks.

Warner Bros. tried to fix these problem with the latest release of 2-CD The Essential Paul Simon. It was a well-executed album, which covered all his solo career from the first album in 1972 through his latest best album in 2006. The first disc summarized his works during 1970s and early 1980s. The second disc captured his latter works with 5 songs from his best album, Graceland. The album covered all the highlight including "Mother and Child Reunion", "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", "American Tune", "Heart and Bones", and "You Can Call Me Al". It also had several gems such as "Gone At Last", "The Late Great Johnny Ace", "Train in the Distance", "Darling Lorraine", and the Wild Thornberrys' soundtrack "Father and Daughter". Some songs were inevitably left out, such as "One-Trick Pony" and "Love", but only the hardcore fans would notice those missings. (Generally speaking, hardcore fans would go for boxset) For casual fans and curious listeners who want one concise overview of Simon's solo works, this is very hard to beat.

NOTE: this album was released in 2 edition. Another one will contain the bonus DVD of music video from Graceland album, with slightly more expensive than the normal edition.