What in the world is going on.....

Have you not noticed how loud this album is? Usually that is a sure sign of heavy handed compression. I'm going to make a digital transfer and will check the wav file. My guess is that I'll see plenty 9f chopped off peaks.

Do not have this CD but other recent Paul Simon CD I do have was definitely mastered to be "loud".

I can't say anything other than this particular record is not his best - So Beautiful So What is, IMHO, a far better album. 

I agree with the observations about its sonics - there's a marked difference between the two 

His early solo albums--standard issue-- sound pretty great as I remember. Don’t know if they were all Phil Ramone, but that would explain a lot. I have more respect for him now than I did back in the day--it was too "pop" oriented for me at the time. I got to hear him play several years ago at a small benefit show in a non-music venue-- audience of several hundred people. He was unbelievably musical.

Roy Halee was the engineer I believe. He did the mixes on this album. 

This from Wikipedia:  Simon also worked with longtime friend Roy Halee, who is listed as co-producer on the album. Halee, who had retired years earlier, was mostly recruited to advise on how to create natural echo. He was unfamiliar with Pro Tools, so Simon helped him with it. "I always liked working with him more than anyone else," Simon noted