Paul Simon's long and manicky struggle between his songs of endearing but forced whimsy and his confessions of unhappiness and loneliness is over, with the latter, in fully-developed form, the victor. Simon's first solo album [Paul Simon] is also his least detached, most personal and painful piece of work thus far—this from a lyricist who has never shied away from pain as subject or theme….

Simon maintains his artistic distance as he evinces a continuing commitment to art as something at least one step removed from the artist. Simon's music, rather than abounding in blatant and obvious attempts at expressing the soul, serves as a continually ironic counterpoint to the emotions, ideas, images, and feelings expressed by the lyrics…. [In Simon's work the listener] remains on the outside and by Simon's lights, intentionally so, as he forces us to look at them without ever forcing us to...