After Simon & Garfunkel went their separate ways at the end of the ‘60s, Paul Simon could've easily knocked out a standard-issue singer/songwriter album and been a huge solo success. Instead, he started confounding us right away on his first solo LP. He imbues “Mother and Child Reunion” with rocksteady reggae vibes. Then his characters hatch a scandalously underhanded plot over a mix of bluesy and jazzy moods on “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”. Soon, Simon was working in influences from African roots music, zydeco, country, Caribbean and tons of other places—see all of Graceland, Rhythm of the Saints and the albums leading up to them—basically tilling and reconstructing the landscape for American music to follow. But his experiments aren't simply a Smithsonian excursion. Simon infuses these exchanges of musical ideas into grooves that keep the body fighting and dancing with the mind.