For an entire generation, the concert event of the new millennium was the 2003 Old Friends tour from Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Their first concert tour in two decades, performing songs that rank among the most memorable of the 1960s, was a sold-out sensation. One may never be able to go home again, but that hasn't kept Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel from trying every other decade or so. This two-CD set (recorded in December 2003 at the Meadowlands and Madison Square Garden) shows their musical chemistry has transcended the years--and no small amount of acrimony. But while their '80s live reunion was marked by an aura of celebration, this one floats on an undercurrent of bittersweet resolve. There's no mistaking the elegiac tone of the title track, while stark readings of "Hazy Shade of Winter" and "Sounds of Silence" can't help but evoke the scars of 9/11. A musical circle is completed as the Everly Brothers step in for a joyous "Bye Bye Love," while elsewhere Simon's musical restlessness inspires a subtly jazzy reworking of "Slip Slidin' Away" and Garfunkel adds his stately grace to his partner's "American Tune." The album concludes with 's first new studio recording in 30 years, the plaintive, irony-studded plea, "Citizen of the Planet." --Jerry McCulley