"Bridge Over Trouble Water" sounds artificial

Take some time and listen again. Sometimes the difference in information you're receiving through your system takes a while for your ears to become accustomed to. If it's not sounding brash or sibilant or harsh take some time and enjoy the bits that are new discoveries. I think mapman sums it up perfectly.

Sorry pjr801 and wolfie, there's no remedy for this recording.
Agree entirely with jctf and mozartfan.

Right from the get-go this was a poor recording showing terrible distortion in the repeated sung choruses towards the end.
I bought the LP when issued and immediately found this track is unlistenable.  Most of the rest of the record is OK.  I have always picked the stylus up rather than listen to this.

I think the engineers set the levels too high and the sound pressure near the climax pushed into straightforward distortion.  Arrangement and engineering by P. Spector?? (not really, only joking).

Obviously this will not sound so harsh on a less critical system.

What a pity!

It was mastered to sound good on a car's AM radio!

I have noticed this too — but the idea of trying different versions is a great one; same with the "getting used to a different sound" idea. I heard an old Joe Jackson track ("Steppin' Out") which sounded awful. Then, I heard a remastered version — much better. It was almost as if they were expecting the original to be played on boom boxes at the beach and then realized that the album was still popular 30 years later and they redid it.

Others here are more clued in about the original recording details of S&G, favorites of mine, too, but things my parents had on vinyl which I heard via the old Garrard TT. So, perhaps not much help. Now, Paul Simon's Surprise album, well -- wow. That sounds great.

So you're complaining because A Bridge Over Troubled Waters sounds just like a bridge over troubled waters?