"Negotiations and Love Songs," judged by its own merits, is a decent anthology album, containing a generous 16 songs drawn from all of Paul Simon's albums through "Graceland." Unfortunately, Simon's previous greatest hits album, which did a better job of covering the highlights of his popular 1970s albums, has not been released on CD. Basicially, "Negotiations..." replaces several cuts from the first greatest hits collection with the soundtrack song "Late in the Evening," three songs from "Hearts and Bones," easily Simon's weakest solo album, and two songs from "Graceland." These inclusions, particularly the "Hearts and Bones" stuff, weaken the collection. That said, there are still a dozen of Simon's best known and loved songs from the 1970s here, most of which sound as fresh now as when they were recorded.Overall, this album is a good introduction to Simon's music for the casual fan.