Bridge Over Troubled Water - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

Bridge Over Troubled Water received positive critical reception. The record was both criticized and lauded for its individual sound, incorporating genres ranging from rock, R&B, gospel, jazz, World music and pop. Bruce Eder of Allmusic said that the album was "perhaps the most delicately textured album to close out the 1960s from any major rock act", especially in a time of troubles in the United States. Author David Browne noted the album's "sonic warmth and richness." Although Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork also praised the unique sound, he said that "Bridge sounds like a unified statement enlivened by styles and rhythms not often heard on pop radio at the juncture of those two decades." Steve Horowitz of PopMatters called the album their worst, criticizing the uncommon sound and the stand-alone recording, thus resembling The Beatles' The White Album.

The album won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, as well as for Best Engineered Recording, while its title track won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Contemporary Song of the Year and the Instrumental Arrangement of the Year in the Grammy Awards of 1971. Bridge Over Troubled Water was nominated at the first Brit Awards for Best International Album and its title track for Best International Single in 1977. In 2003, it was ranked at #51 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. In December 1993, The Times ranked the album at number 20 on its "The Vultures 100 Best Albums of all Time".