The diminutive one travels back to his Brooklyn youth for both the sound and story of his recent, ill-fated Broadway musical. Unlike the heavily produced Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints, there's a sweet simplicity to this delicate blend of doo-wop choirs, Latino rhythms, jazz horns and acoustic instrumentation. Meanwhile, Simon's true-life gangsta tale should be viewed as an earthy flipside to Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. Unlike the play, the album as a whole is grade-A Simon (which is all the man's ever produced, One Trick Pony excepted). --Jeff Bateman
