Watermark is one of the most intelligent, lovely albums made in the 1970s, a reminder that not all was disco or sappy ballads. Garfunkel joins Linda Ronstadt as one of the great interpreters of Webb’s pensive and often demanding songs. Webb was involved in this production and it shows: the arrangements are classy and never intrusive.
˝Crying In My Sleep,˝ with wonderful wordplay (watch Webb toy with the various meanings of ˝ran˝ in one of the verses), the Celtic ˝All My Love’s Laughter˝ (with a little musical help from the Chieftains), and ˝Mr. Shuck and Jive˝ with its jazzy arrangement and embittered lyric. The title track features haunting imagery (Webb is an imagist like Dylan and Joni Mitchell--he tends to think in pictures), and there’s a surreal quality to the arrangement on ˝Wooden Planes,˝ a great song best done by B.J. Thomas.