The word "genius" is bantered about so easily nowadays that it's difficult to really get a feel for what the term means. Part of this problem is that the concept of genius is often interchanged with the concept of talent or a particular skill. To me, this is a mistake, and one even that has been made by yours truly. Genius, after all, is supposed to be a high level of intelligence - and what is intelligence, really? Does merely knowing a lot of facts about something but not being able to 'to put it all together' into a cohesive understanding equate intelligence? Some would say yes, but I would argue vehemently that they are mistaken. Likewise, does somebody with mastery of a specific musical skill, but inability to expand beyond the boundaries of a specific style or skill have the mark of genius? Again, I do not believe so.
So what does constitute true genius then? It's taken me a while to come around to this idea, and perhaps in the future I might change my thinking, but true genius in music, to me, is the ability to cover diverse and disparate musical ground, and to do so successfully. After all, intellect is essentially the "ability to think" in general (and by that, I mean, the ability to successfully intake and use information in whatever field one might be dabbling in, whether it has anything to do with one's major or focus in school or not), so why can't musical intellect be defined as the ability to be successful in whatever genre one decides to tackle, even if it has nothing to do with what one has done in the past (or, even better, help create genres that have had nothing to do with what you've done previously)? Ok, so using that working defintion of genius, who would true musical geniuses be? The Beatles, the Stones, the Who, definitely. The Doors, sure - after all, they did manage to successfully merge roots-rock with a style that had nothing to do with roots-rock. And Peter Gabriel qualifies too ...
What?? Peter Gabriel??!! A man whose actual melody-writing skills are only somewhat above average? Can I really call him a musical genius? Well ... by the definition I've offered, which I feel pretty comfortable with right now, definitely. See, it would be difficult for me to come up with an artist, any artist, who has successfully covered more disparate musical ground than Peter. Not that I'm saying he's the most diverse artist - both the Beatles and the Stones, just to name a couple, have him creamed there - but that his musical metamorphosis has been even more spectacular than that of the Beatles. The Beatles may have covered lots and lots of genres ... but with the exception of serious dabbling in Indian music, which only lasted a couple of years, the band was always English, was always white at its core.
Not so with Peter, not by a long shot. Think about where he began, and think about where he's ended up. First of all, Genesis (of whom Peter was the vocalist, frontman and primary creative force) was a prog-rock group - and there is little question among various smart-alleck critics that prog-rock is the "whitest" of all rock music genres ('white' used in a derogatory manner, of course). But this wasn't just any prog-rock group - this was arguably THE most Anglo-centric, and as such "whitest" band around. But what happened after he left? Oh, sure, it took a few years, but Peter reinvented himself as a herald of the music of non-Western and non-European cultures, incorporating and accentuating rhythms drawn from all over the world. And most incredibly of all, it WORKED. Marvelously at that.
(Of course, you could make the argument that the way Peter approached the music of non-Western and non-European cultures ended up betraying his whiteness more than his work in Genesis ever did, but that's an argument I try to ignore. I am a fan, after all)
As a corollary to this change, he also quickly became one of the best arguments in favor of the whole Electronica (or whatever a better name for it might be) movement, particularly extensive use of drum machines. Now, if you've read other pages on this site, you know that I am still somewhat suspicious of extensive programming and sampling, mainly because they are far too easy to use as substitutes for and not extensions of true creativity. And this slight bias makes the fact that I have never felt uncomfortable about Peter's use of drum loops and sequencing all the more incredible. The man who had once successfully based his songs around complicated chord-changes and weird melody-structures came to successfully base his songs around neato rhythms and clever ways of making them stand out with the listener.
Of course, rhythm isn't and can't be everything - you have to have consistently strong melodies too, and Peter's melodies are sometimes fairly hit-and-miss. Especially on the two 'song-oriented' albums before Up, he has had a slight tendency to fall back on generic Adult Contemporary melodies, complete with generic 'heavenly' synths and all that stuff. But, he occasionally shows a good and even great mastery of a hook, so it's not exactly as if his albums are nothing but rhythmic textures. Even if the rhythmic textures he produces are sometimes outstanding ...
Fortunately for all, Peter preserved his two greatest strengths from his Genesis days for his solo work, his voice and his lyrics, and often enough these save his albums and even lift them to the realm of incredibility. Now, I already went over why I love Peter's vocals on the Genesis page, so I won't repeat this again. I will, however, give some mention to the lyrics of solo Pete. He's always been a master of lyrical enigmas (see: "The Musical Box"), but it was only in his solo career that he made extensive use of them. His songs routinely work on two or more intellectual and psychological levels, and this is of course helped even further by his ability to use his voice to stab his creepiness deep into your soul. It isn't for nothing, after all, that I have regularly referred to the first side of III as 'the greatest psychological thrill-ride in the history of mass art.'
Now, as far as 'band members' go - the only majorly notable person to regularly work with Peter is one Tony Levin, one of the finest session bassists in all of the earth. Whether playing straight-forward 'rock' bass or various funk or ethnic-style lines, he's always able to hook in the listener, even if there isn't much otherwise in the song to hook one in. On the other hand, though, I'm assuming that it's Peter who writes the funk riffs that Tony plays, so whatever.
Oh yeah, band rating? I'm giving him a FOUR out of five. Now, I can understand the raised eye-brows - for those keeping track at home, that's the same rating I gave Yes and even Genesis, and higher than I've given, say, Led Zeppelin. But how can I help it if two of his albums are ones I love, and several others are ones I really like? A four it is.
Sean Rodgers (sero_.hotmail.com)
I've been a big Peter Gabriel fan for a couple of years now. Strangely,
I only discovered he was the lead singer of Genesis a while after I
started buying his albums, and thus had to go back out and spend more
money collecting the albums he did with Genesis. I strongly recommend
both his Genesis and non-Genesis work, although the two have little in
common.
Gabriel, for me, is a perfect example of a "second-tier" artist: not
brilliantly groundbreaking and original in the sense that the Beatles or
the Rolling Stones or Yes were, but one who possesses a good deal of
talent and adaptability and can produce enjoyable and innovative music.
The very difference between, say, Selling England By The Pound and any of
Peter's mature solo albums demonstrates this fact. I'm not a terribly big
fan of "world music," but I do enjoy how Peter incorporates it into many
of his songs...for example, some of the songs on III ("Intruder," "No
Self Control") are built on very unorthodox rhythm patterns that (to me,
at least), seem influenced, at least partially, by non-Western sources.
Unfortunately, Peter's slowed down considerably in the last while; his
last studio album came out more than eight years ago (although I hear
rumours that there is a new one in the works), and since then he's mostly
busied himself with other projects. Hopefully he still
possesses enough of the old talent to make a solid album.
Vicente Ariztia Leniz (varizti1.puc.cl) (07/03/05)
I've read your review about Peter Gabriel and his condition of genious.
I'm an early days Genesis fan and all Peter's music as well.
There is a part of the article in which you say that Peter's actual
songwritting is only a little better than the average.
I know nothing about music as the science of music (I wouldn't be able to
play an A on a guitar) but what I know is that the string synth on Signal to
Noise is a masterpiece; or the piano on Here Comes the Flood; just amazing
melodies written by this man.
Although I agree that bands like Yes play much more complex melodies; that
is different to say that Peter is not able to write complex melodies like
Steve Howe do, but is to say that Peter finds it more artistic to write the
music he does.
Andy & Leslie Schoen (larjschoen2.yahoo.com) (03/12/06)
Just reading through your Peter Gabriel Reviews! I
enjoyed it, and just had two quick thoughts. One I
was at the Carbondale show for the recording of Live,
and I am convinced San Jacinto was recorded at that
show! Very Powerful!
Second, I think OVO is a very strong effort. I
especially enjoyed the vocals from the guy from Blue
Nile (don'y know his name!).
Anyway, fun to read and share the love!
Andy
hypersonic (supersonicemil.yahoo.de) (12/13/14)
I am born 1960 so was too late to understand the ripples of the sixties but growing up in a foster family with some older kids using
drugs, so got enough rock'n'roll early on (say understanding 11y onwards LOL). Fun fact: i wanted the 7" Lola from the Kinks when it
became No 1 hit in Swiss Hitparade and Peter brought me the single Neanderthal Man from Hotlegs, also in the charts. I was frustrated
and protested weaklish, that I didn't like that song, crying about my money lost.. LOL. Today both are still favourites of mine, and
still Lola ahead!
May I ask when did you start listening to PG? You said you had to go back for Genesis. It might be a different reception if you grow up
as a young with this music or if you come to that music when you are already more mature. I immediately stopped listening to Genesis ex
PG.
so .. I grew up with Genesis in the sense that friends brought me to them in '75, and I didn't understand a lot of them crazy lyrics,
but loved the complex music. (I love prog rock vm), but in those days who cared about labelling! Over the last 38 years i've been in and
out on many of the musics, same with Genesis. But i recall Selling England was my top favourite (gay=happy=fun= Harold), Trespass the
darkest mood album, increasing my melancholic tendency. The worst album was Lamb lies down, it was the peak of my pubertary melancholy
and inner sadness. one of the greatest achievements in Prog Rock. Parallell to such Rock i listended to all them German Synthy guys:
Tangerine Dream, Schulze, Peter Baumann etc... - pls dont be angry if i can be at length... i love and live for music, i started to
seriously collect music in 2008 (you might imagine how and why). I have in my PC 150'000 MP3 and other 200k waiting to be ripped. (pls
dont argue Vinyl, Lossless etc). I am over them arguments, i am modest for quality as long that i can listen to a huge variety of music,
i grew "world" very very early on, 20y before that term has been shaped. I started with arab UKW radiostations with 18y, actually i
started almost all with 18y. Music experiments with broken tape recorders, creating tone collages etc of the worst kind (my DJ friends -
i worked at a Disco at night) remember terrified still my parallel mix of 12" Das Modell from Kraftwerk, German and English version
slightly syncopated, to get the most out of dissonances! Combine this with a Lion who eats a Gnu (taped from France Culture), that were
the early 80ties of myself). Today with sampling etc all this seems ridiculous, but i guess you understand how it was back in those days
with the CC etc - So back
Skip all other comments you know now that i am a music maniac
PG 1 Car - dont agree at all for Humdrum, it's the song i only listen to last few years intentionally (the others if ocassion gives),
but, agree its the second part which i am vicitm of. It's a Press A-B points on the Tascam player for that song for 4 hours or so,
anything is possible while listening to that. The problem is, when the song ends, its like coming down from a sniff on a poppers bottle.
It makes me totally depending. Agree on Moribund, dissagree on Sailsbury way too commercial never liked it. Agree on all others except -
are you surprised?? - Flood. Yep, i was falling for that song from the first second, and i love that fleshy sound, heavy drums and
all... seeing one comment on your webside, preferring the piano version, i am inversed. like that one only soso, but::: i admire the
Robert Fripp version very much, that one is touching (understand that if you listen to the Fripp LP as a young, its a wild scream and
some nasty some freaky experimental sounds, then this song balances differently as if you listen to the 3 versions of PG Flood on its
own.. Check North Star, Mary or Haaden Two). That shows that you and me might be on the opposites for Genesis (me being more
emotional), but still in the camp of appreciating Genesis and PG. Waiting for the big one, i love that heavy guitar, dont like the
singing, but it fits for me, bluesy, talking song. I often take out only a part of a song and that makes me like a song which generally
might be not so appreciated. (isn't that a positive stance? LOL)
I think comparing PG1 to B&B of Stones is mixing plain R&R with ProgRock which can't really be compared. Some ProgRk is so complicated
(mindheavy), while R&R is pure lust for live and love.
PG 2 Scratch. very simple. dont like any song more than average, and disslike at least half. LOL a waste, only Flotsam is fun. Reading
your comments, as i know myself, you cant put me simply in that other camp. But the music is less inspiring, and his voice sometimes
made me sick. - Dissagree on your Obscured by clouds vs Dark side... but hahaha, i grew up with Dark side, Obscured I bougth a little
later (I went actually to PNG to visit the mudmen in the highlands in 1997!) (also have the film the valley). I love Pink Floyds ways
more than PG, actually, it's my most influencial group i grew up with. Can't imagine a live without Floyd. But i like we are opposits on
your blog. Thats fun. Did you write of his 1980 Deutsche Album? I liked the song Spiel ohne Grenzen. Was a fun show on TV then
PG 3 Melt. i only like Family Snapshot, deep emotions.
PG 4 Security. This one with Car are my fav of the early period. Because I saw the film Birdy dozend times and was melted in that mood,
and so i navigated between the same songs on the both LPs. But i can also deduct these albums to San Jacinto and Wallflower. I listened
to these two songs many thousand times. Still today there is magic when i hear them. the rest of the album is not important to me. In
Birdy its thus Close Up and Under Lock and Key. When I read your "apparently about an insane Vietnam veteran)" i am surprised you didnt
venture in seeing the film. I have (besides music) a real big DVD collection, and of course dark film Birdy is part of it.
the other PG albums which i have i never really discovered, i don't care. he changed too much, and i did as well. As of the early 90ties
i went to Transglobal Underground and Jungle D&B, then House, then.. world music again... i have extensive collections of balkan music
(maybe over 3500, have over 2500 turkish and 2500 arab songs, etc.. to show you that i exploded into so much music. besides, i have
never said that for 20 y i almost listened only to medieval to mature classic music. ... if i might suggest you ONE thing: i went to an
Albanian disco/concert event few years back, since then i am on drugs for TALLAVA. That is hammer stiff.
Genesis
i shall stop here, have blablaed a lot. hope some of it is understandable for you. Enjoy, Emil
Best song: Moribund The Burgermeister or Solsbury Hill
It's no surprise, then, that the two best songs of the album, BY FAR, are the Genesis-style ones. After all, Pete had no clue what his new direction would be, but he definitely had the old one pretty much perfected. That said, while both "Moribund the Burgermeister" and "Solsbury Hill" have noticable ties to Peter's past (in particular, a large chunk of theatricality), each of them also features aspects never before heard on a Gabriel album. This is especially true in the case of "Moribund," which features orchestral backing in the chorus and deep, robotic drumming driving it forward. But the lyrics and complexity of the song make it otherwise sound like an old, unearthed Genesis outtake, which needless to say makes me happy. And as for "Solsbury Hill," well, that's just a great song - the main acoustic guitar line is extremely memorable, the mysterious, enigmatic lyrics entertain to no end, and chaotic vocal noise-making at the end after Peter's been "taken home."
But after those two songs, great numbers are very, very difficult to come by. Out of the remaining seven tracks, only one, the silly barbershop excursion Excuse Me (with terrific singing by Peter and vocal arranging by Tony Levin, not to mention neat self-deprecating lyrics about suddenly being poor), stands out as even a minor classic. Well, ok, there are other fairly good numbers. If you're a glam-rock fan, you'll probably love "Here Comes the Flood" - personally, I'm not, but I have to admit that it's ok. Not that memorable, except in the chorus, but not bad by any stretch. One can also fish out a couple of pearls within the jazzy "Waiting For the Big One" (which people seem to hate for some reason - sure, it's no more memorable than anything else on the album, but this is actually a very funny song), and in "Down the Dolce Vita." Of course, the most redeeming aspect of the song is the funky rhythm guitar part driving it forward, whereas the rest of the song positively refuses to stick in my brain, but whatever.
Now what bother me are the other three numbers, in particular the two 'rockers.' I'm sorry, but while the novelty factor of Peter "rocking out" might be high, neither "Modern Love" nor "Slowburn" is able to entertain me for more than five seconds or so. The latter especially annoys me - I HATE that "don't get me wrong, I'll be strong" hook, which strikes me as some of the most generic swill I've heard in some time. As for the other song, the ballad "Humdrum," I'm still not convinced of its greatness like many are. The final chunk, where Peter's voice is obfuscated heavily, is decent enough, but the rest of the song bores me to sleep. And that's something I can say about very, very few Gabriel songs.
Regardless of all these gripes, though, I still give the album an 8, since it does get off to such a good start, and since none of the songs are immediately offensive. Honestly, though, I really can't understand why so many people consider this one of two or three finest albums of Peter's career. All you fans out there - teach me something I don't know.
PS (a year and a half after writing the review): I've discovered one extra interesting tid-bit. While I'm still not that crazy about this album's version of Here Comes the Flood, the piano-only version on his greatest hits comp is EXCELLENT, one of Peter's most moving ballads. The Exposure is great, too.
Jamie Anthony (jamie.anthony.lineone.net)
Well, I'd say I love this album so much because it's so fun. This is
Pete letting loose before the really serious, earth-shattering psycho
stuff to come (although perhaps he didn't realise it then). An analogy:
Stand Up by Jethro Tull was great because it was simple fun, no Passion
Play-like themes (although I like that too). I mean, after six years of
theatricality with Genesis, especially after performing Lamb so much,
anyone would have to let loose and rock a bit.
And "Modern Love"? I love it! It's catchy! It's fun! It's bombastic! It
could've been Boston!
Sean Rodgers (sero_.hotmail.com) (7/17/01)
A transitional album- a slight analogy can be made with Roger Waters'
Pros And Cons of Hitch Hiking (though this album is far better and more
diverse). Both albums still show influences of the style developed by
Roger and Peter in their previous bands, although with Roger's album this
"influence" comes dangerously close to "self-plagarism." Anyway. I
definitely agree that the two strongest cuts on this album are "Moribund"
and "Solsbury Hill." Peter just hadn't had the time to develop a style of
his own, and therefore his Genesis-style are still the best. It's a shame
that "Moribund" doesn't get as much airplay as "Solsbury"- I think it's
the equal, if not the better, of the latter, especially the line "I
_will_ find out- Mother, don't you know your son?" Unfortunately, nothing
else on the album approaches the level of the first two songs. It took me
a while to appreciate anything else here, although "Excuse Me" and "Here
Comes The Flood" are decent, if not spectacular. However, to me, this
just isn't as good as Peter's later work. The best was yet to come.
TheRubberCow.aol.com (8/29/01)
well, I have to defend "Modern Love." While I definately don't hear Boston
in it (thank God), it rocks! And it has such a memorable melody, and I love
the way Peter sings it, and who that likes weird Gabiel lyrics wouldn't like
this? A big influence on my vocal style. I am also a big fan of the two
most often mentioned, as well as "Down the Dolce Vita", and "Here Comes the
Flood" is ok, but I am one of those that hate "Waiting For the Big One." I
don't know, something about listening to this song gives me the same feeling
as watching a poor old drunk homeless guy stagger around. Overall, I think
this is his worst album, but it's still Peter Gabriel.
Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (8/13/02)
A good start, but better was to come. Sure, he was trying out some
different styles but the songs are generally strong. What makes Peter's
best albums stand out, IMHO, is a thematic unity and this album certainly
doen't have that. Best song - "Moribund The Burgomeister". BTW, the best
version of "Here Comes The Flood" is on the Robert Fripp album Exposure,
just Peter's voice and a background of Frippertronics, a very emotional
reading with no bombast at all. 7.5 out of 10
donlanda (donlanda.tiscali.it) (10/19/04)
Hi, my name is Tom, I live in Italy.
The first solo album by Peter Gabriel is not a masterpiece, as you
perfectly say; but we know that the passage from the leadership of a
famous group to a solo carrier is always painful.
Anyway there are for great tracks, Moribund the Burgermeister, Solsbury
Hill, Humdrum and Here comes the flood.
The first song is undoubtely a Genesis-period outtake, it seems like a
"Return of the giant Hogweed/Colony of Slippermen" sequel. The second
one, Solsbury Hill, is something about his childhood, something already
made by artists like Paul McCartney and John Lennon (Penny Lane, Mull of
Kyntire, Two of us, Strawberry fields forever, Mother), and one of his
first pop singles. The third, even if somebody thinks it's nothing more
than a useless filler, is what I define as a "superior song"; in fact,
many of 80s bands like Smiths or Cure, surely had heard this song once in
their lives, it is full of referrings to future "New wave" sounds,
Humdrum is one of Peter Gabriel's best songs, that's what I think!!!
Here comes the flood is prefect, but I think there's something wrong in
the production, PG's voice is not perfectly "loud" as the lyrics needed.
My vote is 7,5
Nijaz Lukovac (nlukovac.heis.com.ba) (11/14/04)
You should listen to the version of this one (Here Comes the Flood) on Fripp's Exposure!
acg3dinst.aol.com (12/31/05)
I do question your low rating of the first album (car). While some
ofyour points about it's flaws are legit, I think it's a better album
then either "SO", "US", or "UP".
Roger Weisman (rahjweis.hotmail.com) (08/16/07)
I was initially perturbed by your dismissal of the song "Here Comes
the Flood," until I read your post script in which you recognized,
after hearing the "Shaking the Tree" version, that the song is
brilliant, it is just Bob Ezrin's production that marred the track. I
may suggest you seek (and I would surprised if you haven't heard it
by now) the recording that was done on Robert Fripp's album Exposure.
It has the simplicity of the Shaking the Tree version (but with
Robert's "Frippertronics" in the background) combined with a much
more powerful vocal track than would appear on the acoustic
rerecording. It is, in my opinion, the best version of the song.
Steve Welte (05/13/16)
I get where you're coming from re: this album's sense of stylistic disjointedness, but personally I think the quality of the songs is a bit higher than you do. "Waiting for the Big One" and "Down the Dolce Vita" are kind of rambling and only good in parts, but I'm quite partial to "Modern Love" and "Humdrum"; the former is decently hooky and has a lot of energy, and I do relate to the sense of melancholic longing in the latter (although I'd like it better if I could understand Gabriel's vocals better in the latter half of the song). The songwriting overall is definitely not his best, but there's a lot of creativity and quality ideas here, despite the confusion in songwriting approaches. Indeed, the album as a whole feels rather like Genesis' "And Then There Were Three" from a year or so later, where they were casting about and trying to find a new direction for the band; and the creative uncertainty lends an interesting feel to the album, despite some weaknesses in songwriting and especially production. I've read where Gabriel saw a Springsteen concert around the time he left Genesis, and was very impressed by it; and I can hear traces of "Born to Run" era Springsteen in the bombastic production of this album, particularly with "Dolce" and "Here Comes the Flood". Gabriel reportedly found the final product overproduced, and he's certainly tended to considerably strip down the live arrangements of "Flood" ever since.
Best song: On The Air
Now, I'm not saying this is a masterpiece by any means. As on the first album, the first two tracks stand out a good deal more than what follows. Plus, the production muffles the already subdued material to a large degree, so it's largely possible for many of the songs on here to simply pass you by. But, again, why must subdued necessarily be worse than arena-rockesque? I mean, soft piano ballads (with occasional rock songs) may not jive with the typical notion one has of Peter, and I will grant that if he had continued in this vein, his solo career would have just been a nice footnote instead of a powerful independent force. But regardless of all that, this album is just fine - at the very least, none of the songs on here irritate me as much as Slowburn.
Now, as mentioned earlier, the first two songs of the album are the major standouts. "On The Air," as much of a Who ripoff as it might be (it reminds me heavily of "New Song"), features both the most memorable chorus and one of the most memorable verse melodies of the album, not to mention a killer guitar solo from Robert Fripp (who also produced the album). Of course, given the very loose production of the album, it takes a few listens to appreciate said solo, but once you get around to it you'll appreciate it heavily. As for the next song, "D.I.Y.," once you can get past the fact that Peter sounds like he's singing through a sock, you'll have a great deal of difficulty stopping yourself from humming it for the next hour. The verse melody is the best on the album, the chorus is merely a step behind "On The Air"'s, and the simple ascending guitar line is just perfect. Needless to say, these two songs are a large chunk of the reason the album gets such a high grade.
But most of the rest of the songs each stick out in some way or another. In particular, the album closer "Home Sweet Home" is the creepiest lyrical engima Peter's given us since "The Musical Box." Without going into too much detail about the story, I'll merely say that it's the way O' Henry's "Gift of the Magi" would have turned out if O' Henry had been a psychotic. For that very reason, it works incredibly as an album closer, since it leaves no satisfactory sense of resolution in the listener's mind, and hence leaves him/her wanting more.
Other standouts of the album include "A Wonderful Day in a One-Way World," essentially the closest Gabriel ever came to sounding like Bob Dylan (not to mention it has another memorable chorus), and the soft ballad "Mother of Violence," which has the benefit of Gabriel's tender voice very slightly uneasing you (there's just something off about the way he's able to sing the "she's the mother of violence" so loosely and relaxed). And speaking of uneasiness, how about Indigo, a ballad that's essentially the story of a dying man told from the man's perspective? Brrrr .... Man, that's creepy as hell, and lyrically is a neat predecessor to various songs on III.
On a lighter note, there's, you guessed it, a "Firth of Fifth"-style track (man, EVERYBODY wanted a piece of that song) in "White Shadow." Not that it's really structured like "Firth," of course, but it has the mystical lyrics, weird synth parts and another neat Fripp solo, so what else do you want?? And speaking of Fripp, how about the creepy "Exposure," which Robert would later reuse as the title track to one of this solo albums? I mean, it might put you off with its weirdness, but it's so hypnotic, what with the repetitive drumlines and all, that I can't help but enjoy the hell out of it.
And the rest is ... er ... the rest. Not overwhelming ("Perspective" and "Animal Magic," catchy as they are when on, can irritate just a whee bit, while "Flotsam and Jetsam" eludes me every time), but definitely not bad either. At least, not enough to knock down the rating below an A. I mean, seriously, if two-thirds of the album ranges from very good to great, and the rest isn't bad, how can I honestly give the album any less than an A?
But enough about albums getting good-ish grades - it's time to move onto the 'big boys.'
Joel Larsson (joel.larsson.privat.utfors.se) (8/21/01)
That "Exposure" is even creepier on Fripp's solo album!
And personally I think of "Animal magci" as the best song on here.
And if I haven't got the whole thing wrong, wasn't it our beloved Tony
Banks that wrote the lyrics on "Firth of fifth"?
(author's note): Yes ... but when did I say it wasn't?
Anywayz, I agree with the 11.
TheRubberCow.aol.com (8/29/01)
Here's one more person that agrees that this is superior to the debut. I
actually really like this album. It's hard to get into at first, and I would
expect anyone to have this experience. For the same reason you said,
too...the mix. But there are some great songs on this album, the first 3
being the best, and I really like the lyrics to "Animal Magic." I think he
dissed the military better in this one song than Roger Waters has done in his
whole obsessive career. For some reason, even though I'd say this ranks kind
of low on my list of best Gabriel albums, and it's so insular on the first
few listens, it is easier to listen to than many of the other ones. Can't
really explain why.
Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (8/13/02)
This album starts to gel as a whole piece rather than the first album
which is just a collection of songs. Fripp's production helps here, as
opposed to Bob Ezrin's on the debut which tended to over inflate
everything. No one standout track for me here, still his best was yet to
come. 8 out of 10 (there, there are four of us now!).
CHRISTIAN W. H. (serene23.hotmail.com) (10/16/02)
I have never really gotten into this album, but I absolutely love
"Mother of Violence", I love its simplicity, something, though I love
Gabriel, he doesn't do enough of. The new song "The Drop" and the 16
Golden Greats version of Here Comes the Flood, are brilliant, showcase
Gabriels earthy, beautiful voice, and above all, its all about that
voice, no one has a voice as distinctive as Gabriel.
CHRISTIAN W. H. (serene23.hotmail.com) (10/23/02)
Oh, I need to change my thoughts regarding PG2. I just bought the
remaster and listened to it full volume whilst being stuck in traffic in
Los Angeles. Its moved up a few notches for me. First of all, the
remasters have made the sound pristine, not as muddy and much more
bearable. The songs are great, all of them in fact. I just do not like
the effect that Fripp put on Gabriels voice on every single song. I think
the effect is called Chorus, I have used it on my own voice during
recording (I am a singer). I had to go back and change the effect, it
made me sound as if I was singing slightly out of tune. It can be
effective, and I think it was on perhaps, well, Mother of Violence, but
not every damn song. That said, the song really are fun. Love "Indigo",
love "D.I.Y.". The lyrics to "Home Sweet Home" crack me up. "Animal
Magic" is another Randy Newman wannabe song, ala "Excuse Me", but great
none the less. I love the tinges of left over Genesis throughout. I
really do like this album now.
donlanda (donlanda.tiscali.it) (11/23/04)
I have read your review about II, about the "White shadow" explaination;
you say there's a great Fripp's guitar solo, but in my CD booklet Robert
Fripp appears as the "Producer for Peter Gabriel", not as a musician. The
electric guitar parts are linked with Sidney McGinnis, is it a Fripp's
alter-ego or is it another person?!?
Best song: Family Snapshot
Indeed, even decades later, this album stands out proudly as one of the great achievments of the "New Wave" era, not to mention one of the greatest albums of the 1980's. First of all, Peter obviously fell in love with drum sequencers and electronic drums between '78 and '80, because this album is absolutely smothered in them (in fact, one of the album's distinguishing features is the complete lack of cymbals throughout). But, clever dude that he was, he did not make the mistake that so many make, i.e. letting 'dance rhythms' seize and control his brain. Instead, Peter enslaved the machines and made them bend to his own will, using them as an extension of his creative process to hammer home the general point of the album. And what is that point, at least on the first side of the album? One word: psychosis. Plenty of people, to this point, had used drum machines as a way to create new and unique dancable rhythms, but Peter distinguished himself by choosing to use them to create a truly frightening and unsettling atmosphere.
Of course, it's obviously not just programmed percussion that produces such a creepy atmosphere - it's the lyrics and the music accompanying them. Note that there is no accident in the ordering of that phrase; it is indeed the lyrics that are the main thrust of the first side of the album, with the actual music as a tool to support and expand upon them. Not to say the music is anywhere near bad, of course - it's just that it's not the main artistic focus. So when there's heavy paranoia involved, the music's fast; when there's an overwhelming feeling of slowly approaching doom, the music is slow and bottom-heavy; and when the story is creepy and hazy, like out of some bad dream, the music is uneasily mellow, for lack of a better term.
So what constitutes the songs on this first side, the "greatest psychological thrill ride in the history of mass art" as I used to like to say? For starters, one could not possibly pick a better introduction than "Intruder," with Peter speaking as a burglar. The pounding beat, the weird creaking noises simulating some sort of unscrewing or unhinging (I guess), combined with muffled lyrics like "I like to feel the suspense when I'm certain you know I am there" do an incredible job of creating the images of people lying in their beds, scared out of their wits. And that's the point, I think - a burglar is most frightening because he (or she) is violating the sanctity of one's home, which is supposed to be one's refuge from the harsh, unforgiving world. When that's gone, where can one turn for comfort? Nowhere. A fun thought indeed.
The next two songs (and no, I don't count "Start" as a separate song, since it's obviously meant to be an introduction to "I Don't Remember") also focus on fear, but different aspects of it. "No Self Control" is a favorite of mine, with it's jittery rhythms of alternating synth and guitar noises, weird backing vocals here and there, uneasily fast-tempoed xylophones and Peter's even more uneasy and paranoid vocals. Not to mention, of course, the lyrics, alternating between laments of being unable to stop doing bad things and being scared of the various creatures coming out to punish him for the things he does. But "I Don't Remember" is certainly not much worse, as it speaks from the perspective of an amnesiac who constantly thinks and worries about his past. On this track, in particular, Peter pulls out all the stops in his voice to creep out the listener, chiming with all sorts of frantic-sounding vocal noises to compliment the beat and the weird guitar/synth mixtures.
And, of course, we have the infamous "Family Snapshot." While the music certainly isn't the most incredibly memorable tune he's ever come up (although, honestly, I pretty much knew it after four listens or so), it's the lyrics that matter here. The "plot," roughly speaking, is that we see through the eyes of a presidential assassin, who then flashes back to his sad childhood, with his parents always fighting and not paying attention to him. The greatest thing about these lyrics, though, is the giant enigma painted by them. See, one could also easily interpret the track as actually being told by this troubled young kid who escapes reality by fantasizing about a way to get some attention, then snaps out of it and decides to practice on his parents instead. I can honestly accept arguments for both sides of this debate (and would like it, of course, if you the reader would send in insights on this track). But even without the enigma, these lyrics are INCREDIBLE. Everything is precise down to the last detail, with the president's car slowly coming in range, while the governor's car lies in front with police bikers further front still. Not to mention, of course, that one of the greatest lines of all time is included in this song; "I want to be somebody - you were like that too. If you don't get given you learn to take, and I will take you."
Now, I must admit that for a while, side two disappointed me, mainly because it didn't contain the 'conceptual unity' of side one. Eventually, though, I realized that there are, in fact, four great songs on this side, plus one ok instrumental. None of them are about a psychological disorder, but all of them still contain good lyrics, and more importanty, the melodies are good. Hence, both "And Through The Wire" and "Games Without Frontiers" have worked their way into my heart as wonderfully catchy and, in the case of the latter, really funky songs. Plus, "Not One Of Us" is a wonderful anthem of the socially oppressed, with the twist of being told by the social oppressors. Not to mention that, in one line, it encapsulates the entire clique mentality - "how can we be in if there is no outside?".
And, of course, there's "Biko," Peter's tribute to a murdered anti-apartheid leader. In addition to featuring his first use of an 'ethnic' rhythm, the song contains some of Peter's most passionate singing and moving lyrics. The song could be viewed as monotonous, I suppose, but it's hard for me to truly imagine the song as anything shorter than what it is, including the lengthy fadeout. In the hands of somebody like, I dunno, Bono, the song would probably have turned out hopelessly cheezy - with Peter, though, it becomes an anthem for the ages. How could it not, after all, with lyrics like "When I try and sleep at night, I can only dream in red. The outside world is black and white with only one color dead"?
In short, this is an absolute masterpiece, marred only by some slow bits (i.e. the instrumentals) here and there, and one of my very few favorite albums of the 80's. And just as importantly, it proved for the first time that Peter could not only survive, but thrive without Genesis - no more would the "tsk, he should have stayed with Genesis" whispers abound.
PS: Years onward, I find my "greatest psychological thrill ride in the history of mass art" praise hilariously hyperbolic, and I definitely wouldn't go that far now, but I still stand by the rating and the rest of the review.
Sean Rodgers (sero_.hotmail.com) (7/17/01)
This is the big one. Listening to this album converted me immediately
into a Gabriel fan; in fact, it took me a long while to appreciate his
other albums simply because I enjoyed III too much. Needless to say, this
is Peter's strongest album and proves that he was able to survive leaving
Genesis and completely changing his style of music. I don't have much to
add to your review, but I have to say that "Biko" is one of the most
touching tribute songs ever penned, not to mention having a fantastic
melody and buildup. The lyrics- especially the verse quoted above -are
among Peter's best. But of course, the biggest question raised about this
album is: just what is Kate Bush singing in "Games Without Frontiers?"
"She's so funk-cular?" "Jeez, sand in my ears?" Who knows? It only adds
to the song's charm. This album is how the Eighties should have sounded.
Steve Rencontre (steve.rsn-tech.co.uk) (8/25/01)
For the benefit of Sean Rogers and anyone else who might wonder, the
mysterious words are "Jeux sans Frontieres", but you'd have to be a Brit (or
possibly French) to know that! The song is based an old British TV game show
called "It's a Knockout", which went Europe-wide under the banner "Jeux sans
Frontieres". It's a sort of cultural icon of a very non-cultural sort :-)
TheRubberCow.aol.com (8/29/01)
"And Through the Wire" is the last song on Side One, at least on the record.
I love the drum phil in "No Self Control" after he sings "like a swarm of
bees." Great lyrics in "Not One of Us." Oh, yeah, and what a wonderfully
original album.
Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (8/13/02)
What happened you actually allude to. Peter changed the way he wrote,
starting with rhythms instead of melodies. The biggest example of this is
my fave track on the album, "Intruder", based around Phil Collins' drum
pattern. No bad songs, excellent production, a class act all round. 9 out
of 10.
AV Tramontano (avtcomm.yahoo.com) (10/02/02)
As I read the other reviewers' thoughts on this work, it's easy to see
how PG3 was THE one that turned people's heads. I chuckle when I recall
hearing Kate Bush's voice over the radio for the first time in 1980 on
Games Without Frontiers and thinking, "What the hell is she saying?" A
friend brought the album over and we took to it instantly. I think
it would be hard to argue that PG has produced a better, more
well-rounded effort since. I still believe Dave Gregory's (late of Xtc)
work is often under-appreciated. His contributions, along with those of
an impressive array of talented artists, are huge on those recordings.
It's interesting to note that Walk Through The Fire, while not on this
release, was recorded during these sessions. It's suited for this
release, as I think it would have fit the mood perfectly on PG3. Some
five years before the release of So, I heard a bootleg of these sessions
with what, at the time, was an untitled instrumental (dubbed Seascape on
the bootleg's credits) but became We Do What We're Told. Musically, the
PG3 sessions version is quite a sharp contrast (perhaps do to the
eventual subject matter) to the version released six years later on So,
as it's an eerily-powerful, heavy, thunderous, almost pipe-organ-like
rendition of the tune. At any rate, I highly recommend this release to
anyone who doesn't have it.
Jean-François Lagardčre (jf.lagardere.free.fr) (10/19/04)
Games without Frontiers is the literal translation of french "Jeux sans
Frontičres" which is what Kate Bush sings with an accent of her own makes it
difficult to understand both by the french and english.
"Jeux sans Frontičres" was a french TV show of the late 70es early 80es who
featured villagers from different countries competing in some grotesque and
allegedly funny bag races, and other sportly events involving cows. It was
very popular in France at that time. A sort of war without tears as the song
said.
acg3dinst.aol.com (03/17/07)
Perhaps it's hard to appreciate that now, but in 1980 (or '81, when I
first heard it) this album was a mind-blower. This one sounded like
nothing else at the time. The creepy atmosphere on most of the
songs, from the distorted guitars, vocals, etc. is wonderful. I
agree with John about the line in "Family Snapshot" "and I will take
you". First time I heard that one I got serious chills!. This
remains one of my favorite albums of all time, and it's PG's
masterpiece (arguably including his stuff with Genesis, I dare say!)
Kolby Kramer (gkkramer.gmail.com) (05/13/07)
Hey John,
I was reading your PG 3 review, and I happened to read through your
bit about "Family Snapshot." I hate to say it, but the real
background behind the song is listed here:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=735
trfesok.aol.com (05/13/11)
Yes, this gets the 10. "And Through the Wire" is still my favorite, a great rock and
roll song (about communication?) that drew me into the album (which actually got
quite a bit of airplay). "Lead a Normal Life" is one that you overlooked, maybe
because it is the weakest song on the album. There isn't much song to go with that
cool marimba pattern (I really love that instruments). Still, that's the only
relative dud on a truly classic album that Peter never did beat.
It's interesting to read that quite a bit of material that was later reworked was
developed in these sessions. The only original recording to emerge officially (as a
B-side), was the backing track of "I Go Swimming, referred to as "Ga-Ga". It was,
perhaps, too upbeat to fit on the album.
The song "Biko" led me to its source, Donald Woods' biography of Stephen Biko.
Definitely worth the time to read.
Best song: Rhythm Of The Heat
What distinguishes Security primarily is that, for the most part, it is a concept album. But it's different from most concept albums in a very important way; whereas the conceptual unity of most such albums lie in the lyrics or a story of some kind, here the concept lies in the music itself. The common thread holding about sixty percent of the album together, as you may have read elsewhere many times by now, is the presence of various "ethnic rhythms" functioning as the core of composition. But this is not merely an average "sounds of the world" album - Peter's love of electronics (and making full use of the production capabilities he had at his disposal) had only increased since III, and as such the songs are VERY densely arranged, with layer upon layer of electronic drum, guitar and synthesizer sound piled upon said rhythms. And that is the key to enjoying this album, especially since the melodies themselves only occasionally jump out and suck in the listener by themselves. When I first took this album home from the store, I gave it a listen on headphones ... and within a matter of a few minutes, had to take them off due to my brain simply not being able to process everything that was going on at once. Now, it did take me a few listens to begin to enjoy some of the melodies themselves, and as such I didn't love the album at first, but I knew right away that, from a pure sound perspective, I had a masterpiece on my hands.
It should be noted, though, that a lot of people, even fans of Peter, don't like this album much. A commentator on the Prindle site summed up the general feeling of these people quite well - ""Shock The Monkey" and "I Have The Touch" are just floating in a sea of blah." Of course, as you may gather from that, even haters of the album love those two songs, and for good reason. Neither one of them follow the "ethnic rhythm" concept, but that doesn't mean these are average 80's pop songs either. Everyone, of course, has heard "Shock the Monkey," whose underlying topic probably doesn't need explanation. It's a great little ditty, though, especially the parts with the encoded vocals saying, "ShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhOCK shhhhhhhhhhhhOCK" and near the end when Peter is hitting insanely high notes. "I Have the Touch" sure isn't any worse, though. The percussion sequencing is entertaining as heck, and if you don't find yourself subconciously moving your various body parts when Peter hits the "shrug my shoulders stretch my back etc" parts, you just aren't listening closely enough.
But, again, most of the album does not sound like those numbers, and as such people often dislike it. But, as much as I enjoy "STM" and "IHTT," they positively PALE to the best of the 'atmospheric' numbers on here. And keep in mind, again, that this comes from somebody who still isn't convinced that rhythm can consistently take the place of melody as the central feature of a song and still be enjoyable. But, you know, it's not as if these songs are completely unmelodic bores - there actually are hooks, they're just VERY few and far between. More importantly, though, these songs are able to move beyond the realm of mere 'mood music' because they all have one very important attribute; build (well, ok, "Family and the Fishing Net" is an exception, but it's great for other reasons). These songs start relatively subdued, but their verse melodies continually grow and grow in intensity until erupting into something grand and wonderful.
This is especially true of the first two numbers (which, of course, are the best two numbers), "Rhythm of the Heat" and "San Jacinto." Even when I was doubtful about the rest of the album, Rhythm was a song I found myself coming back to again and again, a tale of a "westernized" person living in a non-western land until the culture around him overtakes his mind and spirit. Peter puts on a wonderful vocal performance, particularly in his "The rhythm has my SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUULLLLLL" calls at the end of each chorus. The production is also especially terrific on this track, as the low end is filled with pounding bass and bass drums and strange shaking noises throughout. And, of course, the song goes nuts at the end, as the main rhythm speeds up and intensifies until coming to a dead stop.
"San Jacinto," in turn, greets us with a rhythm driven forward by (my guess, anyways) some sort of Eastern wind instrument, mixed in with what sounds like a chime of some kind. As time passes, little bits of of guitar sound pop up here and there, whilst Peter speaks from the perspective of an old Indian lamenting the decline of his people and the loss of its holy land to modern culture. The tension builds until the Indian declares in the "I hold the line!" part that, despite the hopelesness of the situation, he will not surrender, and he will not lose hope for the future of his people. Plus, I find the coda, overlong to some, perfectly appropriate, not to mention eerie as hell and quite beautiful.
Closing out side one is another classic in "Family and the Fishing Net," a tale of a wedding. Yes, it's a bit monotonous. Yes, it probably doesn't deserve to be so long. But it rules. Why? Because the drum-programming on the track is just so cool. Man, it's like you can hear the drumstick cutting through the air, swooping down onto the waiting drum below. It practically sounds like an executioner's sword, it's just that neat (I also appreciate the irony of using executioner imagery in the music to describe a wedding). And, of course, there are extra little percussion effects throughout to add some sense of diversity.
Another minor classic, along the same lines, can be found in "Lay Your Hands on Me." Peter begins each verse muttering over an erratic drum track, sings quietly for a little bit, and starts singing louder and louder before erupting into the very catchy chorus. And, as is expected from Peter, it's utterly fascinating lyrically (I especially love the line, "No more miracles, loaves and fishes, been so busy with the washing of the dishes.") It's not quite as great as the songs that came before it, but still, there's no reason to dislike it, no reason at all.
Unfortunately, the last two tracks let things down significantly, and drag the rating of the album down a point. Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate the lyrical theme of "Wallflower," devoted to prisoners of war who are mistreated, and I pity the main character. But more than any song on the album, this is NOTHING but mood music - it tries to be a beautiful anthemic ballad, but so did "Humdrum," and you know my feelings about that one (still, the good elements of the song are enough to make it decent, even if it doesn't come close to the greatness that it seems to be shooting for). And, alas, the closing "Kiss of Life" is even worse, with an utterly generic latin rhythm underpinning it while Peter sings about loving big women. Maybe you'll find it fun, but I find it completely lacking any reasonable substance.
Regardless of those two weaknesses, though, this is a GREAT album. If Peter only decided to release the first six tracks and call it an EP, it would be very very close to III in quality. It's not an album that will hook you in right away, but with just a little time and a little care, there's no reason one shouldn't come to appreciate this as the electronic (minor) masterpiece it is.
Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (8/13/02)
This is my favourite Peter Gabriel album. How can anyone not love an
album that starts with a song as awesome as "The Rhythm Of The Heat"?
Every song is great, I even like the last two, particularly "Kiss Of
Life" after such a "heavy" album it is a real blowing off of steam.
"Shock The Monkey" was the first Peter Gabriel song I ever heard and I
have loved it ever since... this album totally blows me away. 10 out of
10 - and even that seems inadequate!!!
CHRISTIAN W. H. (serene23.hotmail.com) (10/16/02)
People and fans don't like this album? This is my favorite PG album,
period, this is one of the most sensual albums ever. And everyone I play
it for loves it as well. Where did you hear that people didn't like this
one. 5 of 5 stars, two thumbs up.
Kolby Kramer (gkkramer.gmail.com) (01/30/07)
I have not listened to this album nearly enough to make a certifiable
judgment of either good or bad. In fact, this really has nothing to
do with your review itself and whether or not I agree with you. No,
this is just an e-mail to provide a bit of information behind "Shock
The Monkey." If you look in the liner notes I believe, you'll see
that the accompanying vocal work was provided by Peter Hammill of
VdGG, among others. I found that kind of funny due to how they're
both lambasted by anti-Proggers as "too melodramatic." What better
way to piss such people off than to have the two biggest contributors
to vocal melodrama team up to do a song together, I suppose. Anyway,
I didn't know if you knew that or not, nor did I see any mention of
it on your Peter Gabriel page, so I figured I would just drop in to
let you know.
Trfesok.aol.com (08/28/08)
Very cool album, but I don't think it's quite as good as the third
one. The main reason, as you point out, is that he goes more for
atmosphere than melody. But it still has a very big sound, with both
real and programmed drums dominating the arrangements. The African
drum ensemble coming in at the end of "The Rhythm of the Heat" is
especially neat. "San Jacinto" and "The Family and the Fishing Net"
are the weakest to my ears, but only because they go on a bit too
long. "Shock the Monkey" and "I Have the Touch" are the obvious, very
catchy singles. "I Have the Touch" is actually a bit unnerving --
the guy seems obsessed with touching people, rather than being an
ordinary social butterfly. The lyrics of every song are quite strong,
even if the music isn't. This is the reason I have to disagree with
you on the last two songs. "Wallflower" is the most genuinely moving
of all of the songs here. I do really feel for the character, and the
gently tinkling piano (another part of Pete's new sound) is a nice
relief from the big drums. Finally, I don't agree that "Kiss of Life"
"lacks substance". The lyrics are a bit vague, but he seems to be
trying to tie together a tribal earth mother thing in with
artificial respiration (the lyrics in the bridge), all accompanied by
those big drums and a very danceable groove. However, most fans seem
to agree with you. These last two songs weren't included in the live
set on the tour, either. So, although we'd score each song
differently, it still adds up to a 9.
After this album, Pete recorded an excellent track for the Against
All Odds soundtrack, called "Walk Through the Fire". Very atmospheric
and intense. He then re-recorded it for a single, slowing down the
tempo a bit, but still almost as good as the album version. Worth
hunting up.
Fernie Canto (cfern.canto.gmail.com) (11/28/08)
For a long time, the only way I was able to listen to those first
four Peter Gabriel records were on vinyl, and my LP playing gear is
horrendously poor, so I finally took my dose of self-respect and
acquired the albums on our beloved digital format and gave them some
good listens. Those three first records, whew, I probably like them
even more now than I used to (though the third one actually annoys me
a little bit as Gabriel tries TOO HARD to be disturbing and
unsettling with his lyrical themes; really, just let it go, will
ya?), but the fourth one? One thing is to dislike an album, another
thing is to hate it. But neither of those things have to do with
being genuinely embarrassed by an album. I don't know, maybe it's
just personal prejudice, but nearly everything Gabriel has been doing
from now on seems to be a WAY worse copy of what David Byrne does.
You can see Byrne dedicates his life to digging deep into music from
outside the US and Europe (which is, matter of fact, a pretty big
place), pulling out gems and getting soaked into the real essence of
the music. Gabriel, though, seems content with merely wrapping
himself with the bare surface, filling in the gaps with usual fodder
to make the critics happy.
The shimmering example of that is precisely the track you pick as
your favourite, the album opener. I'm not saying it's downright wrong
with telling stories from "primitive" peoples from Africa and their
culture, but setting them to these banal percussion tracks and that
dorky synthesized "HUMMMM!" bass notes just reeks of "Oh look at me,
RollingStone and NME, I'm bring in 'oh so ethnic' elements into my
music and it sounds really creepy and scary, because African people
are all creepy and scary! Ain't it cool?". Maybe Gabriel didn't mean
that, but those lyrics and the idiotic whispers on the "Smash the
camera (cannot steal away the spirits!)" part betray a nasty attempt
at making the world outside look "exotic" without properly getting
into it. Compare this with what Byrne did on Rei Momo, in which all
those different Latin rhythms with odd names (not even I knew there
was a rhythm called "Mapeye") are involved in, *drumroll*, David
Byrne doing just the same kind of music he'd do without them. Why
making African music sound creepy and forbidding, when it's in fact
only music? Mike Oldfield already demonstrated it in Ommadawn, but
making those pounding drums sit comfortably next to bagpipes, tin
whistles, folk guitar, electric guitar and synthesizers.
Right, I sound like I'm trying to say "doing this is WRONG", when I'm
actually all open for different views and interpretations. What I am
against is making these things so damn superficial, especially when
they're designed to sell. On one side of the record, you're greeted
with 'The Rhythm of the Heat', and on the other, 'Shock the Monkey'!
What's next? Opening the next Christine Aguillera (does that girl
even make music still?) album with extracts from the Qu'ran? 'Biko'
already sounded a wee bit dorky, but I still could believe the
intentions were genuine. Here, though, I can't.
So that's more of a political rant or anything, but regarding the
music, ehh... I think the one thing this album boasted back then was
the integration between the "primal", "ethnic" rhythms (yeah, as if
the dance-groove of 'Shock the Monkey' and the goofy euro-samba of
'Kiss of Life' were any primal or ethnic!) and the state-of-the-art
electronics, especially done by the then brand new Fairlight CMI. But
why should this stuff be any better than what would be done by the
likes of Mike Oldfield and Kate Bush? True, this album came first,
and Bush even learnt a lot from Gabriel, getting quite close on the
title track from The Dreaming - but that song is, to me, still
superior for being just downright eccentric and not merely "creepy".
Bush's The Dreaming and Oldfield's Crises are closer to what I'd call
a "masterpiece of sound", while STILL being excellent on the grounds
of melody, arrangement and musical sensitivity. I remember Starostin
saying this album was a product of the experimentation on Eno and
Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Frankly, I'm not so sure. Eno
and Byrne's masterpiece brought all those disparate elements (bouncy
rhythms, work with samples, recordings from external sources) so
close together to the point of making them inseparable and surpassing
the title of "mere experimentation". The focus wasn't simply on the
"ethnic stuff", and actually on mixing them with many other things in
a natural, organic, yet electronic and hyperactive way. Gabriel
merely put them next to each other and let the tapes roll, but it
worked with the critics and the buying public, so he stuck with it.
On his defence, though, some songs are still quite good. When he
sticks ONLY to the catchy, electro-grooves of 'Shock the Monkey' and
'I Have the Touch', the result is just fine. 'Lay Your Hands on Me'
and 'San Jacinto' overdo the "atmosphere", I think, but they're still
relatively enjoyable. Sorry for the huge rant - I don't want to sound
like I'm putting you down for liking the album, really. Far from
that. I mean, I'm not 17 anymore (man, I don't even want to read my
old comments on your website!). One thing is for sure: with this
album, Gabriel found his place, and there he'd stay. So I have no
fear in being a "retro" fan - his first three records are great, and
the third one is a landmark, no doubt about it. And let's not even
comment on his Genesis era - too awesome for me to rave about here.
Okay, I shut up now. I'm glad to see you're still reviewing, and
here's wishing you'll keep it up. Thanks a lot.
Best song: San Jacinto
The difficulty presented in reviewing this, of course, is that the album strongly resembles a compilation, and most of the songs here are very similar to what we had in the studio. NOT THAT I'M COMPLAINING, of course - with the possible exception of "Humdrum," not a single duffer can be found, so at the very least it's an effective compilation. But still, to be truly great, a live album must have some surprises and 'revelations,' so to speak.
Which, fortunately, this album contains. Surprise number one is what a great number "D.I.Y" turns out to be, especially now that we can actually hear Peter's vocals (which are superb here, of course). Seriously, it was this version of the song that turned me onto the original, which I first considered just a mediocre 'dance ditty.' Who could have known it could sound so powerful when, before, Peter was singing with his mouth full of pebbles? And speaking of muffled vocals, "Intruder" sounds very peculiar here, as Peter takes the opportunity to sing many of the softer parts of the original at almost full blast (even belting the ending "I am the intruder!"). In any case, the third surprise is the unveiling of a rarity entitled "I Go Swimming." It's VERY uncharacteristic for this era of Gabriel, and actually sounds a bit like the faster numbers on So. Of course, the lyrics are characteristically naughty - I've read the suggestion that it's about a man with a water fetish, and I for one believe it.
The second disc also has its share of pleasant surprises. "San Jacinto" sounds INCREDIBLE thanks to all studio restrictions on Peter's voice being absent. Seriously, as much as I love the original, it has nothing on this live rendition as far as passion goes, especially in the "I hold the line, San Jacinto" parts. Of course, "SJ" isn't the only good thing about this disc, not by any means. "No Self Control" gets a radical reworking, slowed down from its original paranoid uptempo mode to a sort of jazzy piece, but with just as much intensity as before.
And, of course, the last chunk of the show is incredible. Not just for the music itself - there's just something about the way they are performed, the energy of the audience, and just the general atmosphere of the place that gives you the feeling that something special, something uncharacteristically good for the 1980's was taking place here. Well, ok, not so much in "Humdrum," but "Shock the Monkey," "On the Air" and "Biko" are about as good of a closing sequence as one can have. "Shock the Monkey" is especially interesting, not just because of the cool audience participation, but because you realize that Peter is, in fact, HITTING THOSE HIGH NOTES. Obviously, though, this is not to put down either of the other two tracks (not to mention that "Biko" is opened with a quiet introduction of, "This is for Steven Biko.").
Again, I apologize for the relative brevity of this review, but you have to understand - it is VERY difficult to find anything to say about most of the songs here that I didn't say in the last few album reviews. Regardless, though, if you have $20 just waiting to be spent, don't completely disregard this as a possible purchase.
Pete Anderson (pete.distantearlywarning.info) (12/13/09)
"no album with Tony Levin is unenjoyable"
did you forget Yes' Union?
(author's note): I purposefully blocked it out of my mind.
trfesok.aol.com (12/13/15)
I hadn’t listened to the whole album in years, and it brought back great memories of my one and only Gabriel concert, about a month after this was released and about a year after it was recorded. Although Peter confesses to overdubbing, you wouldn’t really know that – the album sounds very close to the actual live sound, which suggests the overdubbing was used more for reinforcing, rather than replacing, the live instrumentation.
The setlist of my concert was pretty simiar, of course. Several numbers from here were dropped – “The Rhythm of the Heat “,” Lay Your Hands on Me” and “I Don’t Remember”(bummers). On the other hand, he opened with the barely released “Across the River”, which no one really knew. Also, he brought back one which is not here – “Games Without Frontiers”. They had dropped it because they “couldn’t get it right”. They changed the arrangement,and I remember the tempo being faster and the the music much harsher than the studio version. And they still did “Humdrum”, which indeed is the oddest choice here. Of all the numbers on his first album, why this one?
There was one moment in the show which proved that Pete had a sense of humor. When sitting down at his keyboard for a number, he discovered that it had somehow become unplugged from the amps. While they fumbled around trying to fix it, he said “we’re turning professional in about a week or so”, which got a huge laugh from the crowd.
The opening act was The Call, the band led by the late, great Michael Been. Peter came out without his makeup and stage clothes to introduce them. I immediately became a fan and bough their 2nd album, “Modern Romans”, the next day. They were an underrated group that never really got their deserved commercial success.
Edward J Gorski (egorski13.mail.bw.edu) (08/13/17)
If nothing else, the version of San Jacinto on this album is worth the price of admission. I love the Security version, but this version absolutely destroys it. The backing synth lines are more scintillating, Gabriel's vocals are more emotionally profound, and it's just more satisfying overall.
On the whole, this album is pretty good, and everything is on par or even better than the originals (especially Not One of Us, On The Air, and all 5 Security tracks), with only a few exceptions (I Don't Remember and Intruder).
Best song: Floating Dogs or Slow Marimbas
Of course, a large part of the reason for the similarity to the last two albums is that five of the twelve tracks are, in fact, just re-workings of numbers from those albums. No, they aren't just the whole regular tracks sans lyrics (except in the case of "The Heat," which fits that description), but rather bits and pieces of those songs emphasized in odd ways. So we get the flutes and atmosphere of "Wallflower" ("Under Lock and Key"), the backwards guitars in the "San Jacinto" coda ("Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain"), the pretty piano intro to "Family Snapshot" ("Close Up") and the energetic coda to "Not One of Us" ("Birdy's Flight"). All good, all enjoyable.
The other seven tracks are dark ambient instrumentals with occasional vocal snatches here and there, and they serve their purpose very well. The opening "At Night" gets things off to a great start, with an eerie-AS-HELL rhythm (not to mention that the placement of drum tones, especially that ominous electronic buh-DUH-DUH at the end of each phrase, is nothing short of genial) underpinning a moody synth line that goes from scary to slightly upbeat back to scary at the end. This in turn leads to the incredible "Floating Dogs" - at first you think it's just going to be another dark mood piece, but at a little more than a minute in it becomes this guitar and drum rhythm fest that rocks as well as any good 80's piece should, and then fades back into dark obscurity again. Eep, that's a fun listen.
And then there's "Quiet and Alone" - if you want a track to really give an idea of how creepy it can possibly be to sit in a dark room all by your lonesome when you're already feeling jittery about things, this is your best bet. The recorders jump around like glimpses of ghosts flittering about the room, and the grumbling synths underneath pin down the feel of darkness to a tee.
The "safe" favorite of the album, "Slow Marimbas," starts off sounding almost like a slowed-down version of "No Self-Control" (maybe that wasn't a xylophone after all ...) until various synths glide up and down to complete the atmosphere. But it's not just atmosphere - those synths are playing a melody, and it's a good (though simple) one. It just so happens that you have to really pay attention to it in order to catch it.
The rest of the tracks aren't that noteworthy, but they're all right. "Dressing the Wound" is most notable for having traces of Peter's voice in the background, providing the image for me of moaning patients in the background and just a general sense of death and despair throughout. The other two tracks ("Slow Water" and "Sketchpad for Trumpet and Voice") aren't particularly great, as they're just more of the same atmosphere with little musical idiosyncracy, but what do you want from Peter? It's hard to make an entire album of darkness completely enthralling.
In short, this is a good (and unfortunately largely forgotten) album that every Peter fan should own. Fans of the early 80's stuff should be ALL OVER this one - Peter is, after all, a master of atmospherics, and the atmosphere here will have you quaking before it's all said and done. Sure, much of it is reworked stuff, but it's good stuff, so that shouldn't be a problem for you.
TheRubberCow.aol.com (1/12/02)
Why, yes. That is a marimba in "No Self Control" from 3. Played by his
buddy Phil.
robert chaundy (robchaundy.yahoo.com) (5/12/04)
It's an interesting one, Birdy. Compared to his later epic soundtracks it
sounds childlike and even a little tame, but it contains a lot of charm
and eerie beauty, and among the few people who have heard it there don't
seem to be many who dislike it.
I would go so far as to say that 'At Night' is one of the spookiest, most
melodically powerful things he's ever done. It's only a short overture,
really, but the power it builds up is remarkable - the music feels as if
it is breathing, it evokes the feeling of lying wide awake at night like
nothing else I know. One of his most impressive compositions, no kidding.
The rest is more modest, and the album doesn't end in very convincing
fashion, but it is fascinating to listen to his reworkings of the tracks
from III and IV, and hear him taking his first cautious steps into the
world of ambient instrumental music.
The film itself is a little underwhelming, and doesn't make particularly
prominent use of the music, but it's an enjoyable enough tale all the
same. I still can't decide whether the ending is a stroke of genius or a
moment of unbelievable stupidity... see it and decide for yourselves...
The soundtrack is definitely worth getting hold of though. It was the
last of his pre-superstardom records, lest we forget... the obscure,
enigmatic end of a golden era.
Trfesok.aol.com (08/28/08)
This one is a nice first try for a movie soundtrack, even if it
reuses stuff from the previous two studio albums. What's interesting
is that the mix is changed for the old stuff to a more compressed
sound, rather than the large, expansive production of the originals.
This, I'd bet, is because of the involvement of Daniel Lanois. The
sound is, in retrospect, a prototype for the sound of So and Us,
smoother. "The Heat" is my favorite -- I like the huge drum section
at the end, just as I did on the original album. The album, on the
whole, is very nice background music for a PG fan.
The movie was quite good, I thought.
Best song: Red Rain
The resulting product, then, was essentially "mainstream and adult-contemporary pop meet world beat and experimental." Predictably, critics and fans alike gushed over this album, and gush over it still. With songs to satisfy both cheezy pop lovers and weird-atmospherics aficiondoes, it would seemingly deserve all the praise heeped upon it. But does it really? Well, here's where I break from the majority of the population - from the perspective of fusing the mainstream with the whack, So is, in many respects, a failure. Yes, both pop and art are well represented on the album, but on how many tracks does Peter really succeed in fusing these two aspects into one beautiful whole? He does make an attempt on quite a few of them, but with few exceptions, one has difficulty classifying any of the songs as both intelligent art and interesting pop.
In fact only one of the songs here can be considered an exception ... but WHAT an exception. The opening "Red Rain" is an absolute Tour de Force, one of the shining examples of truly intelligent 80's pop, balancing atmosphere with catchiness exquisitely. There are some "heavenly" synths like one would find on a typical Phil Collins album, but somehow they're employed in such a way that they don't annoy the listener (not to mention that there's a LOT of piano to compliment them). Plus, the drum programming is very meticulous and intelligent, and Tony Levin contributes one of the most entertaining performances by a bass player that I've ever heard - it's like the lines are slithering about, for lack of a better term. Peter also contributes his best vocal performance of the album, both in singing and in his lyrics (which I guess are about being in a rain of blood, perhaps after a heavy battle or something like that).
But that's it - the rest of the album can basically be divided into "obviously pop" and "obviously atmospheric." And, as is often the case in such situations, both categories are represented by good and bad numbers. The best of the pop numbers, in my opinion, are the two fastest, "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time." Yes, you've heard them a zillion times on the radio, but face it, they each deserve it. In addition to each being insanely memorable and featuring good Gabriel vocals, they each have one overwhelming attribute not usually found on a Gabriel album; snap. What that means, exactly, I'm not sure, it's just the word that comes to my mind first when thinking of how to describe them. What I can tell you, though, is that each is based around guitars rather than synths, and that each have clever lyrics that will make you smile and laugh.
To a lesser (ok, waaaaay lesser) extent, I can also praise "In Your Eyes." The problem is, I feel like I shouldn't like this song too much at all - it's essentially generic prom music, with fairly dippy lyrics and more of those heavenly synths. However, it does have a slight thread of melody, and more importantly, Gabriel's wonderful voice is able to save the song from the doldrums that a Phil Collins would have given it. So if I had to assess if I like the song or not, I'd have to give it ... a slight thumbs up. Don't put a gun to my head about it, though.
The other two pop numbers on the album, alas, are not so good. "That Voice Again" isn't awful per se, but the more I listen to it, the more I feel that it's merely a weak imitation of "Red Rain," only without that song's undeniable melody and intensity. "Don't Give Up," though, is worse. MUCH worse, in fact, and I can only thank the maker that Peter had the intelligence to only put one song of this type on the album. Peter really enters a Phil Collins mode with this song, with only a nice Tony Levin bassline to salvage things slightly. The synths are annoying, the lyrics are stupid and cliche, and the Kate Bush backing vocals ... dear me, I could not have possibly prepared myself for how corny and awful her vocals are here (how I long for the powerful seductress of "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)"). They are SO syrupy and gross that I can't stand the song at all past her first entrance.
Beyond all these numbers, we have the atmospheric textures of the album. These also evoke mixed reactions from me. "Mercy Street" isn't bad, of course, as there's hardly anything offensive about it. The problem with it is that it sounds like a Security outtake, which isn't a compliment - the great numbers of that album all had gradual build and development, while this song just chugs along without approaching anything resembling a climax. It's just mood music - an odd little mood, but just mood music regardless.
The other two (conveniently tacked on at the end of the album), though, are very enjoyable (and in the case of one of them, creepy as hell). "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)," in which Peter gives tribute to the experiments that helped explain, among other things, why people would follow Hitler's orders re: the Holocaust, is a piece that Peter had done many times on stage prior to officially recording it. I actually had a hunch before hearing that album that this track would resemble the Birdy material, and by gum I was right. It's theoretically simple - just a repetitive percussion line with build-ups of backing chanting. And yet, the percussion line is memorable in itself, and the atmosphere is hypnotic in an evil sort of way, so I have no complaints.
Finally, we close with "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)," a collaboration with Laurie Anderson. It's another weird number, not exactly pop, but not pure atmosphere either. It's not just the novelty value that makes this so great, though - Peter's and Laurie's voices work together very well, whether blurting seemingly nonsensical phrases like, "Falling snow! Excellent snow! Watch it fall!" or interacting during the "I see pictures of people" chunks. Again, I have nothing else in my CD collection that sounds even remotely like this, so I can't really compare it to anything, but as the man once said - "I know what I like, and I like what I know."
Of course, I know this album pretty well ... and I only like it in parts. Regardless of all the many weaknesses it possess, though, I warily squeeze out an 8 for it, if only for respect for such incredible numbers as "Red Rain" and "Sledgehammer." Fortunately, Peter would eventually try to make another album with the same ambitions that accompanied this one, and that one would turn out very well. But first, he had a major detour to take.
Sean Rodgers (sero_.hotmail.com) (7/29/01)
Even Peter couldn't totally escape the Eighties, as this album proves.
Luckily, he was talented enough to succeed in turning out a good album,
although not without its flaws. "In Your Eyes" is one of his best known
songs, which is a bit of a letdown considering how many great PG songs go
more or less unnoticed (Biko, for instance). It's not great, but at
least it tops "Don't Give Up"- the last thing the world needs is for
Peter to start aping Phil Collins. That is probably his worst song,
period. However, Peter showed his mastery of pop music by penning "Red
Rain" and "Sledgehammer," both of which are fantastic (and I'm not even
going to start in on the groundbreaking music video for the latter- it is
essential viewing). I still think "Mercy Street" is a little better than
your assessement of it- but then I really enjoy that song's atmosphere.
Overall a decent product, although I wouldn't really recommend it to
people as their first Peter Gabriel album. What a great! cover, though.
Joel Larsson (joel.larsson.privat.utfors.se) (8/02/01)
Rather a bad album - I think. I like his Genesis works better than his
solo career, but before (and latter, like Us) he sounded a bit
innovative, while on this record he becomes too mainstream and "common".
No surprise this album became a huge sell-out, because that is what t was
supposed to be - and Peter use to work his will. Unfortunately, his will
and mine went different ways when he left Genesis.
Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (8/13/02)
Yeah it's more commercial, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. I
like virtually everything on here, the possible exception being "Don't
Give Up", which is overlong - it drags. You are right that "Red Rain" is
awesome - I still argue with a friend of mine who reckons it's
overproduced - what nonsense! "Mercy Street" is a fave of mine too, yes
it's mood music, but the mood it creates really affects me, OK? 8.5 out
of 10.
Simon Brigham (slb23.shaw.ca) (4/14/04)
Peter Gabriel's So may have been a bit more mainstream and accessible
than his previous albums, but i still like it. "Red Rain",
"Sledgehammer", "In Your Eyes", and "Big Time" are catchy pop/rock
classics. But it still has it's darker, mysterious tracks: "Mercy Street"
and "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)". I especially like "Mercy
Street" - it's quite a moving and emotional track. The great lyrics
and dream-like atmosphere are haunting and affective.
The other two songs, "Don't Give Up" and "That Voice Again", are not bad,
but certainly not great, either. I don't really like Kate Bush's vocals
on "Don't Give Up", but the music is pretty good. I rarely listen to
"That Voice Again", I don't like it that much. The drums patterns are
cool, though.
Overall a pretty good album, but not his best.
Trfesok.aol.com (11/25/06)
I do think that you underrate this one slightly. The poppier songs
aren't just plain old ordinary Phil Collins-type stuff. "In Your
Eyes" is made more interesting, not just by Peter's voice, but by the
percussion arrangement and Youssour's African backing vocals. "Don't
Give Up" has very intelligent, moving lyrics that are atypical. with
unemployment very personalized. Granted, you don't have the,expansive
sound and experimental edge of the third and fourth albums. After
hearing some of Birdy, though, I wasn't all that surprised that he
turned to a smoother, more compressed sound here. Also, portions of
the second album are just as poppy as the stuff here, so it's not
like this was unprecedented. And it's nice that he shows a fun sense
of humor on "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time," for a change. If you're in
the mood to have PG go down easier at times, it's a good album.
Best song: A Different Drum
Did he succeed? Well, as far as I can tell, he did. Honestly, though, I know absolute jack about world music in general, so I can't really say how this album stands up to others of the genre. I do know, however, that a large number of these songs are highly entertaining, with interesting and tricky percussion rhythms backed with ominous, moody synth parts.
Besides, the first third or so of the album is positively awesome, no matter how you look at it. "The Feeling Begins" sets the pace with a low-pitched synth noise gradually gaining volume while a violin hovers overhead, until a really interesting rhythm sets in. "Gethsemane" then presents us with chaotic flute samples (all courtesy of Peter) over more low-pitched synths, before jumping to the wonderful "Of These, Hope" suite (with "Lazarus Raised" buried in the middle). The main rhythm beats out anything on Security as far as keeping my interest goes (that says a LOT, by the way), while the synth backings are just beautiful throughout.
My favorite track of the whole album, however, is the incredible "A Different Drum." Aside from yet another interesting rhythm, it also features Peter's voice predominantly. Of course, he's not singing anything coherent - this is an instrumental soundtrack, after all - but that doesn't really matter. In fact, the lack of coherency makes the fact that his vocals move me so much on this track all the more incredible - only Peter can make a track come alive by the sheer power of his voice even when he's not actually singing any lyrics.
One should also take note of "Zaar," the followup to "A Different Drum." As written in the liner notes, "This was written around a traditional Egyptian rhythm which is performed to fend off evil spirits," and needless to say it's one of the most interesting on the album. What truly makes the song, though, is the sound of violin chirping in to make the track even more eerie than it would have been otherwise.
Unfortunately, the album begins to sort of blend from this time on - after a number of listens, only the penultimate "It Is Accomplished," with its triumphant chimes driving things forward, sticks in my brain at all. Well, ok, I think it's neat the way that the album ends on a less dramatic and less conclusive note than "It Is Accomplished," ending instead with the quiet "Bread and Wine." But other than those aspects, virtually nothing truly stands out. None of it is bad, and I enjoy all of it when it's on, but the overall mood makes me really sleepy after a while.
Regardless of all that, however, I happily give the album an A, if only because the first eight tracks are one of the most enjoyable 20-minute stretches of music I have in my collection. And besides, the album helped reload Peter with inspiration for better things, so what is there to complain about?
CHRISTIAN W. H. (serene23.hotmail.com) (10/23/02)
Bought this album in 1989 when it 1st came out, I was 15. Fell in love
with the sounds and textures. I would fall asleep to this nightly and
play it on my walkman at school. People found me to be a strange young
man in school. They were all too cool for Passion, it wasn't top 40.
Anyway, that's my short story on that one. I noticed that no one had made
a comment yet. This is an amazing collection of atmospheres and rhythms.
"A Different Drum" is pure musical ecstasy. "With This Love" and "With
This Love" choir are both chilling and heartbreaking. Peace.
robert chaundy (robchaundy.yahoo.com) (6/16/04)
Christian said it - I quickly lost count of the number of nights I fell
asleep listening to this record, especially in the hot months of summer.
The sounds and moods of Passion are utterly bewitching; I know of no
other album like it. Some people compare it to My Life In The Bush Of
Ghosts, but frankly I don't see that they have anything important in
common; and, more to the point, Passion is about ten times better.
John is absolutely right that the first third of this album is
incredible. If 'The Feeling Begins' is a slightly cheeky update of 'The
Rhythm Of The Heat' then at least it's a good - in fact a great - one,
and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that after the brief
interlude of 'Gethsemane', each track is better than the last. He opens
up whole new worlds - literally - of sound and musical expression here.
He makes the music of Arabia and North Africa fit for European
consumption, but without sanitizing or taming it in any way. That in
itself is a great achievement - the fact that the end result sounds as
momentous and as moving as it does is something to stand in awe of.
But even though that first third is magnificent, I really don't think the
quality of the music weakens at all subsequently. The final two thirds
don't blend into quite the seamless whole of the first - they are more
like a collection of tracks than a fluid suite - but what they lack in
coherence they make up for in sheer power, to wit the 'With This Love'
diptych and the immense, terrifying title track, which I think, on
balance, trumps even the other dazzling high points earlier and later on.
And speaking of later on, 'It Is Accomplished' is the perfect climax to
the record (I want it played at my wedding) - and, interestingly, it is
one of the few tracks which is used to genuinely powerful effect in the
movie....
ah yes, the movie. I will declare an interest: it is one of my personal
favourite films, but I readily accept that that is due in large part to a
semi-blind devotion to anything touched by the hand of Peter, and an
abiding affection for worthy, dull epics (see also Gandhi, Howard's End)
that the critics turn their noses up at in unison. The music fits into
the screenplay reasonably well, although, as above, the album should
certainly be listened to well in advance of viewing the picture - the
intensity of the former could never be, and wasn't, lived up to by the
latter. But that is no crime. The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem coincides
brilliantly with the 1:41 eruption of 'A Different Drum', and the equally
powerful 'The Feeling Begins' makes periodic appearances. The title track
underscores Jesus's procession to Calvary with appopriate majesty and
gravity. To paraphrase Johnson, the film is worth seeing, but not worth
going to see. Catch it if it is shown on t.v.
I'm reasonably certain that this is Peter Gabriel's greatest album. Not
the one I listen to the most, nor even my favourite. But the incredible,
unnameable things - the passions - that he captured in musical form here
are absolutely unmatched by anything else he has ever done, and virtually
anything else any of his contemporaries have done either. This isn't pop
music, it's not songwriting, it's not commercial product, it's not even a
movie soundtrack as far as I'm concerned... it's not anything easily
recognisable to our cultural senses. Sure, he borrows, liberally, from
foreign sources. This music isn't all original - some of it is as old as
the hills and the sand dunes. But it is all fashioned into a coherent
listening experience, and a coherent Peter Gabriel listening experience
at that. And this from a man whose only real instrument is his voice, and
who sings on only one of these twenty-one tracks... he defies common
sense sometimes.
I can't imagine life and art without this album. Life and art without it
is a mildly frightening and desperately impoverished prospect. Let all
PG's other work be swallowed by the sands of time - as long as this
survives, the future will know all it needs to know about him, and about
how good music in our era was capable of getting.
Trfesok.aol.com (11/25/06)
It really is quite a jump from Birdy and So, to say the least.
Sophisticated, complex, varied music. Only "It is Accomplished"
sounds anything at all like So. Even so, even though there are no
lyrics and almost no vocals, you still know it's Peter Gabriel music.
Particularly if you're Christian, it makes wonderful meditative
music. A work that is remarkably reverent towards Christ, especially
coming from someone who isn't (I don't think) a practicing Christian.
I've never seen the movie, but I have to, if it's as good as the
music. Since I have seen Rabbit Proof Fence, I would bet that the
same relationship holds true here!
Best song: Steam (though it's REALLY hard to choose)
Surprised, are you? Well, let's compare the two albums in various defining aspects. So made a stab at fusing world-beat with pop, but (as mentioned before) almost none of the songs boasted strong concentrations of both aspects of Peter's artistic vision. HERE, though, almost ALL of the songs boast untrivial rhythms (thank you, oh thank you Peter for using programmed percussion in an interesting and intelligent manner) while also containing strong hooks and interesting vocal melodies. And speaking of vocals and vocalists, Kate Bush has been sacked, replaced by a legion of other females, including Sinead O'Connor. Now, I know absolute jack about O'Connor, other than the fact that she tore up a picture of the pope on SNL, but I do know this - her voice jives with Peter's so much better than Bush's does that it's positively frightening.
Most importantly, though, is that the vibe of the songs has changed significantly from So. No more are the numbers generically happy and upbeat - as you may know, Pete had recently gone through a divorce before this album, and this event obviously weighed heavily on him throughout the recording sessions. Now, one may think that it's a sign of "fanyboyism" to love an album so much because it's a "deep, introspective" piece, but you have to remember that this is Peter Gabriel we're talking about, and Peter has always been at his best when his "true self" has been engraved in his songs. And sure enough, these songs find Peter sad, (occasionally) happy, optimistic, pessimistic, angry, and mopey, sometimes all at once. None of these lyrics are straightforward, cliched texts "distilled" for a stupid populace - moody enigmas abound, showing a man in utter confusion about how to feel.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that the songs themselves are almost uniformly excellent. The best-known songs of the album are the three uptempo singles, each of which had really awesome videos. My favorite, by a slim margin, is "Steam," whose central feature is one of the best basslines you will ever hear in your life. It's extremely dancable, of course, but it can hardly be viewed as a sellout by Peter - it grooves and shimmies (shimmy courtesy of a healthy amount of guitars throughout) like nothing else in his catalogue, but the lyrics are incredibly entertaining, and even the pseudo-rap-bridge is cool!
The other two are hardly much worse, of course. "Digging in the Dirt" may not seem like much at first (at least, it didn't to me, striking me as just a slightly-mad normal pop song), but closer inspection reveals it as a masterpiece of modern pop. Featuring four distinct melodies throughout, it flows from one pissed-off section to another before resolving itself in a pleasant chorus (of course, the pleasant chorus melts into one of the other, less happy sections as the song fades out). "Kiss That Frog" may also not impress much at first (many consider it a ripoff of Sledgehammer, since it's fast, poppy and a metaphor for Peter's little Gabriel), but it's far too addictive to resist for long. The main melody is fun and entertaining, the lyrics are funny as hell (as are Peter's croakings near the end), and can you really resist Peter's harmonica and organ playing?
As cool as the singles from this album are, though, they are hardly the only worthwhile aspect of the album. The slower numbers, as a whole, are miles above the ones on So, and worth the price of Us by themselves. The bookends of the album, in particular, are positively spectacular. "Come Talk to Me" is one of the most astounding opening tracks one can imagine, even more so than "Red Rain" - I would be hardpressed to name a more enrapturing fade-in than the low-guitar-rumble/bagpipes/drum loop that greets us here, and the rest of the song doesn't let up through its 7 minutes. This track (one of only two such on the album, unfortunately) also features O'Connor on backing vocals, and as I said before, her voice mixes with Peter's in a way that Kate Bush could have only dreamed of.
The closing "Secret World" also lasts 7 minutes, and while many consider it overlong, it's honestly too short for me. In addition to the most incredible, heartbroken lyrics of the album, a wonderful vocal melody and beautiful use of piano in appropriate places, it also features yet another cool bassline courtesy of Mr. Levin as the song moves into the "middle 8" (and during the fadeout). The atmosphere is also incredible, truly creating the impression of a hidden, "secret world" where two people can live in peace.
A couple of the other songs are very close to the So style, but (naturally) are much better. "Love to be Loved" comes close to generic adult pop at times, but never crosses the line that "Don't Give Up" threw up on. It's dark and moody, with Levin high in the mix most of the song and Peter contributing a mellow, restrained vocal, until it enters a beautiful piano-driven coda featuring typically incredible singing. "Blood of Eden" also seems vaguely adult-poppish, with O'Connor chiming in again, but the song is hardly saccharine (how can it be, with lyrics like "Is that a dagger or a crucifix I see?"), so it never bothers me. Plus, Peter hits some very high notes again and again, which makes the vibe of the song that much more peculiar.
The remaining songs are a bit strange, but not much worse. "Washing of the Water" is, of all things, a very slow country song, but it's incredibly beautiful nonetheless. The melody is strong (as usual), especially during the mid-section, while the lyrics (with Peter asking the water to cleanse and guide him) are tear-jerking ("I'll get those hooks out of me, and I'll take out the hooks that I sunk deep in your side, kill that fear of emptiness, that lonliness I hide" anybody?). Again, it's hard to imagine Peter doing country, but his take on it is sufficiently strange to make the song not seem very out of place on the album.
Now, the remaining two tracks are a wee bit fillerish, but that's only in comparison to the other numbers on the album. "Only Us" is a WEIRD tune, mixing grumbly guitars with what I think is an African rhythm, whilst Peter throws in a somewhat chaotic vocal arrangement. The thing is, though, even with all these disparate features, the song at its heart is a downbeat, mellow song, and as such the song is a bit disconcerting to my ears - were it not for the nice vocal melody and the wonderful "Only us sleeeeeeping, only us dreeeeeeeeeaming" chorus, I wouldn't hold it in as high regard as I do. As for "Fourteen Black Paintings," it's essentially a Passion outtake with vocals added, and as much as I enjoy it, the track really should not have been stuck between "Digging in the Dirt" and "Kiss That Frog."
So there's your album - a masterpiece, and surely one of the best of the 90's. Once upon a time, it was actually my pick for the best album of the 1990's (that's changed, though) , and were it not for the fact that (a) it doesn't really break any significantly new ground and (b) I'm having trouble convincing myself that it's worth a higher grade than Foxtrot or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, it would probably get an E. If you have So already, get this - it's better.
Daniel and Corine Bosch (dcbosch.optusnet.com.au) (8/13/02)
Yes, definitely an improvement. One area I am going to disagree with you
on though - if ther is a shameless rip-off (musically) of
"Sledgehammer"/"Big Time" on this album it is "Steam". I don't really
like this song as it sounds to me like an attempt to write a single, like
the only contrived song on the album. The rest sounds natural and is
killer. Best song? A toss up between "Blood Of Eden" and "Digging In The
Dirt". 9 out of 10.
donlanda (donlanda.tiscali.it) (11/06/04)
This album is what we can say PG's best work; Us has something totally
different from all the other albums. In this album, Peter doesn't use his
favorite toy, the vocoder, in order to give a sense of reality to his
lyrics; the results are the best words and the clearest images that he's
ever created in his whole solo career (of course, I'm not including
Supper's ready, Firth of fifth and The Lamia). All the songs have a
"plateau" inside, a critical point in the middle of the song that allows
the achievement of a solution for all psycological problems; it is
important because I've heard someone saying that Us is an introspective
album, a sad and egocentric album. I really think the right word to
define this album is "hope"; Come talk to me is a cry from a lonely man
who's lost his woman, but there is no hate in it, and the verse "...just
like it used to be" is the furthest thing from hate. Love to be loved is
nothing more than what the title suggests, and it has a critical point in
the middle too, the line "...I recognise how much I've lost, but I cannot
face the cost...and I let go"; Blood of Eden has a wonderful
middle-eight, from the words "..at my request" to the G note that
symbolizes for me a resurrection; Steam is not important, it seems having
no kind of link with the rest of the album, it's something sticky for
airplay or MTV, even if Quiet Steam, included in the SWL DVD's bonus
tracks, is really good; Only us is maybe the clearest exposure of Peter's
problems, he knows that he'd better shut up and listen but at the same
time he hears his woman calling him back home from the great escape;
Washing of the water is the natural folowing of Love to be loved, in
which Peter understands that letting go is not the best thing to do,
because it's hurting now; Digging in the dirt is the result of a
psychoanalisis session, with the different feelings hate ("don't talk
back...this time you've gone too far...shut your mouth...don't say
nothing") and fear ("stay with me, I need support"). I think that this
song exactly explains us what is PG's real problems and feelings: there
is a woman, who doesn't understand him and doesn't hear his problem,
putting him in the dirt (in which Peter finds the places he got hurt).
But Peter knows that the only person able to take him out this situation
is the same one who left him there, his wife (he needs her to stay close,
to give him support). Fourteen black paintings is something really
near Zaar or Across the river atmospheres, then we have Kiss that frog,
useless just as Steam or In your eyes, and the perfect final, Secret
World, a real pop/world music, something always beautiful in all PG gigs.
I give the album a 9 out of 10.
Amy MCKEAN (almckean.msn.com) (08/06/06)
I just wanted to share a theory of mine about "Kiss That Frog" from
Us. It has been previously established that Peter Gabriel has a
fascination with Anne Sexton's prose and poetry, evident in "Mercy
Street". Perhaps not so transparent is a connection between "Kiss
That Frog" and the poem, Frog Prince, in her book, Transformations
(1972). Anne Sexton's version of Frog Prince is even more overtly
sexual than the Brother's Grim version. I can't imagine that it's a
coincidence that Peter Gabriel wrote his own version the fairy tale
in "Kiss That Frog." I think he was inspired by Anne Sexton's
interpretation of it. Although this is not a musical review, I just
wanted to share my idea with someone!
Kolby Kramer (gkkramer.gmail.com) (01/30/07)
I wrote the other e-mail to you as I finished the Security review,
and having just gotten to Us, I see you mention Sinead O'Connor. To
quote you:
"Now, I know absolute jack about O'Connor, other than the fact that
she tore up a picture of the pope on SNL..."
Here's another bullet of trivial knowledge: she slept with Peter
Gabriel.
Just figured I would bestow this useless knowledge on you, being that
I respect PG and the work he's done with Genesis (far more than any
contribution Phil could purge), as well as after. Not to mention
that I found it kind of amusing since Sinead's looks are where boners
generally go to die. Peter Gabriel = genius? I would still say yes,
but his overall perception comes into question after such a demeaning
act. Then again, he IS Peter Gabriel, and pretty much unpredictable,
so I guess I can't particularly fault him for his actions. At least
he didn't pull a Townshend and load his pc with kiddy spank, so I
suppose Sinead is a step-up from pedophilia (although not a vast
one).
Trfesok.aol.com (06/13/11)
I used to feel that this one ran neck and neck with So, but I now have to
agree with you that this one has the edge. This is really the first time
that you get the feeling that Peter is writing about himself. As excellent as
the third and fourth album, Peter is playing characters in those songs
that are clearly not him. But Peter has recently undergone a bout of
psychotherapy, and the lyrics clearly reflect this.
My first experience with the album was driving on a nearly empty road on
the outskirts of Houston, when "Digging in the Dirt" comes over the radio.
Needless to say, the song seemed even scarier than it already was. The chorus makes it obvious that therapy is the subject. But the carjacking scene --
is Peter the victim, or the perpetrator? I'd pick the song as my favorite,
but there are lots of contenders. It's a good thing that "Steam" and "Kiss
that Frog" are there to lighten the mood, compared to everything else.
"Blood of Eden" and especially "Love to be Loved" that make the listener ache
with Peter's expressed vulnerability. "Washing in the Water" has an
unusually minimalist arrangement, as far as Gabriel songs are concerned. "Fourteen
Back Paintings" is the weakest thing here, serving the same function as "We
Do What We Told" served on So -- atmospheric filler.
I'd put this third in the rankings of PG's albums, after the third and
fourth, although it's more accessible than either of those, but much deeper
than So. Maybe the best first stop for a new PG fan.
Best song: Steam
The biggest difference between the live performances and those in the studio, of course, is the presence of real percussion rather than sampling. Fortunately, Peter gathered together some really crack musicians for this release, and as such all of the performances (including those by the drummer) are flawlessly executed (while at the same time not sounding like soulless reproductions of the originals). Tony Levin is great as usual, Paula Cole substitutes for Bush and O'Connor admirably, and the rest are, well, the rest.
The setlist, of course, is fairly predictable ... with a few big, big exceptions. Yup, even in live performance, Peter couldn't let his weird, world-beat/ambient side go unrepresented, so during the first third or so of the album, we get a good 17 minutes of 'obscure', mostly instrumental pieces (well, ok, except for the last one). This begins with the very Passionesque Across The River (which doesn't really capture me like the better pieces of that album), which in turn flows into Birdy's "Slow Marimbas" and finally ends with the 9-minute "Shaking The Tree." This is a true highlight of the show, with a neat piano-driven groove propelling the song forward while Peter and Co. sing occasionally before Peter uses the song as a chance to introduce his backing band.
Otherwise, the album is quite straightforward, not going past So for its material (with the exception of "Solsbury Hill," closing disc 1). The only really major addition to any of the songs comes to "Steam," as the introduction is very much in the vein of "Quiet Steam," an outtake from the Us sessions. Otherwise, besides a slight slowing of "Red Rain" that I find kind of regrettable, the other songs on here sound just fine ...
The album isn't ALL peaches and cream, though. I would advise anyone listening to this album to shut it off after "Secret World" on disc 2, because the rest of the album is murder. "Don't Give Up" doesn't improve a whit upon its predecessor, and "In Your Eyes" ... dude, this is AWFUL. I mean, I could more or less tolerate the song on So, but this is just 'ethnic muzak' of the worst kind, and I don't really understand how anybody could tolerate it all the way through. "Shaking the Tree" had some bounce and energy - this doesn't.
Fortunately, besides those two disasters, I can't complain too badly about the album. Aside from the fact that, except for the rarities, nobody needs it.
Joel Larsson (joel.apa.proggare.com) (1/01/02)
Oh, but I LOVE this album! Not before I got this one, I didn't care much
about Peter Gabriel - "OK, he's a quite okayish solo artist who was
better before", I thought - but within this album, and its excellent
performances of the songs from So and Us, I realised that this guy is
still great! Almost every track is better performed live than it was in
the studio, and they're all better presented. Songs like "Come Talk To
Me" and "Don't Give Up" weren't really anything special in the original
studio recordings, and after some listenings to Us I still didn't know
that "Kiss that frog" at all existed, but this album really captures the
spirit of Peter Gabriel and his music, and I warmly recommend it to
anyone interested in him.
donlanda (donlanda.tiscali.it) (10/19/04)
I got both album and DVD videos from "Secret Word Live", and I'm very
happy about the whole performance. The thing that this record is taken
from a two-days gig in Modena (Italy) makes me proud, 'cos I'm from Italy
too!!!
The only thing I actually didn't understand is the change from video to
CD, "San Jacinto" is here replaced by "Red rain"; this is a great song,
ok, but I know by heart the video performance of one of PG's best tracks,
"San Jacinto", maybe better than the studio original version.
Anyway, I give a 9 out of 10 to this double album.
Tom
Best song: Father, Son or Make Tomorrow
An unsuccessful concept album, but a terrific listen nonetheless, Ovo is the soundtrack to the dedicatory show (right?) of the London Millenium Dome. The concept is actually fairly interesting, and Peter is kind enough to include a Quicktime movie on the CD which explains it in detail, but unfortunately the concept doesn't come through well on the album. If you listen to the album with the mindset that you'd use on, say, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, allowing yourself to follow the specifics of the plot along with the actual music, you'll be disappointed and even bored. Only the bare necessities of the plot are displayed in a lyrical form (with the exception of one track), and trying to wrap your brain around the given bits and pieces and trying to form it into a cohesive whole that matches the visual side will only leave you unsatisfied. In short, it's best to forget that the conceptual side of things exists and just concentrate on the music, because that's where OVO comes shining through.
It's fitting, then, that the only track I end up disliking is the opening "The Story of OVO," which my brain ends up esteeming the same way as it would Salt'N'Pepa singing Rush lyrics. The instrumental backing is actually fairly interesting, as is shown aptly in its instrumental reprise ("The Man Who Loved the Earth"), the vocals themselves aren't horrid, and the lyrics at least do a good job of giving an overview of the story, but the way it all comes together is enough to really make me fidget and squirm. No thanks.
The rest, though, is friggin' great. I'm a little sad that Peter chose to hand over many of the vocal duties to other people, as his voice has always been my favorite attribute of his music, but the guest vocalists all shine, so the blow is softened. Musically, the sound is somewhat in the vein of Us, only with less of an emphasis on overt pop aspects. It is heavily based in statics, much like most of Passion, but while Eastern influences are strong here, the rhythms are often based more in "regular" Electronica modes. I'm not complaining, though - Peter has STILL not become slave to electronic percussion after all these years, and they only augment his vision rather than becoming "dance rhythms for the sake of dance rhythms" (bleh). Besides, Tony's still on bass, and we know how HE is at making dancey rhythms really come to life.
Occasionally, though, Peter pops out with a song boasting strong "traditional" characteristics, not just the ability to mesmerize the listener. "Father, Son" is a GORGEOUS ballad (sung by Peter himself!) sung from the perspective of one looking back on his childhood and the time he spent with his father. He thinks of growing up, the love he felt for him as a child, of growing apart from him, and overall there's an air of regret of time lost. Or something like that. It's depressing, though, no question about that.
There's also "The Time of the Turning," with Richie Havens (the one who did the original "No Opportunity Necessary No Experience Required," which Yes completely remade on their second album) and Elizabeth Fraser (of Cocteau Twins fame) providing some magnificent vocals throughout. Richie takes on the role of establishing the "foundation" with a majestic, almost operatic (only more low key) performance, while Elizabeth intertwines with him as she sings a MARVELOUS chorus that seemingly pops out of nowhere from the rest of the song. Amusingly, this part of the song makes a reprise in a later track, "The Time of the Turning (Reprise)/The Weaver's Reel," where Fraser's pretty vocals somehow gets mixed with, as George Starostin put it (and how can I better phrase it? That's what it is!) "an Eastern-influenced Irish jig."
Otherwise, though, the songs are mostly atmosphere and statics, with some of them having more intensity than others. Not that the songs with lack of intensity are bad - on the contrary, they're mostly beautiful and hypnotic. It just so happens that it's hard to say anything about "Low Light" other than "pretty and soothing" or about "The Nest That Sailed the Sky" other than that it gives a good representation of its title or about "Downside Up" other than that it's pretty and that it features a nice duet between Paul Buchanan and the aformentioned Elizabeth Fraser. And come to think of it, I'm not so fond of the higher-intensity instrumental "Revenge," one of the few pieces of definite filler on the album (though only a minute and a half), or the following "White Ashes," with some incomprehensible vocals here and there.
The remaining two tracks, though, are damned nice. First, there's the Industrial-style "The Tower That Ate People," with some distorted Gabriel vocals and a very "robotic" feel to the whole thing. Normally, I'm not so big on this sort of thing, and I'd feel it necessary to condemn the track somewhat, but I have an excuse this time. See, the lyrical matter is all about Man becoming more and more like Machine, so it's only fitting that the song would have more of a mechanical feel in its rhythm and delivery than the "organic" songs in the rest of the CD. I'm a big fan of form-imitating-content, you see, and this is as clear an example of that as one can find.
Closing things out is the ten-minute "Make Tomorrow," an incredible anthem of the simultaneous optimism and trepidation that come with any step into the unknown. Featuring the three primary vocalists of the album (plus Gabriel), it intertwines a great simplistic-yet-beautiful piano-based melody with yet ANOTHER creative rhythm, alternating between quiet and loud, pensive and upbeat. Add in that it has a great subtle increase in intensity throughout, and that the vocals are spaced out just enough to draw out the listener's interest as long as possible, and you have a song that's still cooking just fine at the seven, eight, nine and ten minute marks, when it finally lets go and fades out. It's a breathtaking experience, one that refuses to sag at all (which isn't bad for a ten-minute rhythm-based song).
Overall, then, OVO turns out to be a LOT better than I expected it to. Just forget the details of the story and feel the emotions and sentiments captured by the various pieces, and you'll enjoy it easily as much as I do.
CHRISTIAN W. H. (serene23.hotmail.com) (10/23/02)
No comments on OVO either, hmm. This is a strangely hated album, as I
find it to be quite enjoyable too. Its great to hear Peter experimenting
a bit. I only wish he sang the male vocals as his voice is much more
expressive. Though, I love track number two, number one on some versions
(the title eludes me). The vocals are perfect. "The Tower That Ate
People" sounds like it would fit perfectly on UP. There is a cool remix
on the Red Planet soundtrack as well. The last 10 minute epic, "Make
Tomorrow" is deeply moving and sufficiently triumphant, a superb way to
end an album.
David Sheehan (09/13/12)
Just a bit of trivia here: The original UK release of this album did NOT include the crappy first song (“The Story of OVO”—I do
like the chorus to this song a lot though), but instead included a 2-minute instrumental link between “The Nest That Sailed The
Sky” and “Make Tomorrow” called “The Tree That Went Up” that is slightly reminiscent of “It Is Accomplished” from Passion. I’m not
wild about it, and I like the album’s ending flow better without it, but it sure beats the pants off “The Story of OVO.” Really a
strangely-maligned album. I agree with your score.
Best song: Stealing the Children
Where Passion called upon Peter to fuse his artistic sensibilities to Arabic and Judaic themes, Long Walk Home (naturally) draws heavily upon Aboriginal music ideas, and while I suspected before buying this that Peter wouldn't be able to take on this task without ending up with a generic "sounds of the outback" album, I was deeply mistaken. There's always a definite sense of the music's region of origin, yet the album never shoves a sense of "HEY! THIS IS AUSTRALIA, IF YOU DIDN'T CATCH THAT ALREADY!!" in the listener's face. Whenever a "regional mood" bit comes along, it's only developed long enough to give the listener a frame of reference for the location of the accompanying scene - beyond that, though, the mood and atmosphere lends itself more to the plot, or to the universal theme that is meant to resonate in a particular scene.
So, for instance, the opening "Jigalong" starts with all sorts of tuneless ambient instrumental parts that, for whatever reason, my mind can immediately equate to a desert area, yet not entirely uninhabited, (it also helps that, even though there's not a single didgeridoo (or however that's spelled) on the track, much of the instrumentation immediately reminds me of them), yet that theme gradually gives way to vaguely epic, optimistic "traditional" keyboard and string themes (with rhythms in the classic Gabriel mode). Or take the next track, the sonic and rhythmic masterpiece "Stealing the Children," which alternates between contemplative organ themes with pounding rhythms in the distance, and these EVIL sounding instrumental noises swooping in from the side while legions of percussives go nuts all around my ears - it sets the mood location just fine, but it's the overpowering menace that really makes it memorable.
I have no intention of going through every track, but there is something I'd like to point out about the album. You see, it's only natural that since Peter worked on this soundtrack at the same time he was fine-tuning Up, that some ideas that would later land on Up are shown in bits and pieces here. There isn't a lot of "self-plagiarism" (though I admit it's quite unfair to call it that in this case), but I hear plenty of both "Signal to Noise" (much of that track's string parts are done in different variations on here) and "Sky Blue" (especially the ending chantings on that track from the Blind Boys of Alabama). Now, if you scroll down a bit, you'll see me basically dismiss "Sky Blue" as extraordinarily boring, a claim by which I still stand adamently. However, and this irritates me more than a bit, the use of the ending "Sky Blue" harmonies in the context of this soundtrack, buoyed by moving string, rhythmic and chanting parts, in a series of killer emotional climaxes is absolutely stunning. Man, if Pete could only have used some of the passion of THIS and put it on Up, maybe I wouldn't feel so indifferent to so much of that album (as you can read below) ... ah well, make no mistake, I'm quite grateful that at least I got these sensations on this album.
In short, this may have slipped under many a fan's radar screens, but this will certainly go down as one of my five favorite Gabriel albums, a terrific soundtrack that (unlike Birdy and Passion, to small degrees) doesn't get boring as it goes on. I mean, it's surprisingly diverse in mood and form, there's plenty of well-timed climaxes ... what more can you ask of an album with no actual "songs"?
robert chaundy (robchaundy.yahoo.com) (4/29/04)
Yes yes yes. I love this record to bits, and I think I agree that it has
a lot more life to it than Up.
You should see the film. Everyone should, actually - it is a truly
wonderful picture, and when I say it doesn't leave a dry eye in the house
I mean it. The moral crux of the movie is a little more complicated than
you have heard - the children in question are half-aboriginal and
half-white, and are abducted by the authorities to be brought up in white
society.The moment of their escape ('Running to the Rain') is one of the
most gripping and tear-jerking in the film.
The difference between this and Passion is that on that album it sounded
at times as if Peter was showcasing the music of others, rather than
mastering it and setting his own artistic seal on it. Long Walk Home is
100% him and whilst it doesn't have the dazzling spectrum of sound that
Passion does, it has more consistency, and more of a wordless,
impressionistic narrative, somehow. The production is as detailed, expert
and tremulously deep as almost anything I've ever heard - some of the low
sounds feel as if they come from the depths of mother earth herself.
The highlight of the album for me is 'Gracie's Recapture' - the track
fades out to nothing, then re-emerges with an utterly haunting
mellotron-type sound and builds to an almost unbearable peak with Pete
intoning 'whoah-oh' over the top. It's moving enough on the album, but
the way it is used in the film will tear your heart out.
Like most music, when and where you hear this for the first time defines
your impressions of it for ever. For me, running at night up and down the
deserted North Sea coast as the midsummer sun rose out of the silver
sea... it was a weird and beautiful few weeks, and this album was its
soundtrack.
trfesok.aol.com (12/13/15)
I saw the film when it was released, and it’s an incredibly heartbreaking story. As for the soundtrack, I don’t think it’s as good as Passion, because it doesn’t have the variety of sound that that one. However, I do agree that it’s better than Up. It doesn’t have the distorted vocals and depressing lyrics (naturally) or harsh industrial sound of some of those songs. My favorite here is the “Sky Blue/Cloudless” pairing at the end of the album. I like the contrast in the two sets of vocals. Unlike you, that made me appreciate the vocal version of “Sky Blue” more.
Looking at your post-Up, it does look like it was all downhill from here…
Best song: Growing Up
Even disregarding those massively overwrought expectations, however, Up is (for me, at least) a giant disappointment. OVO had successfully convinced me that Peter had PLENTY of good material left in him, as that particular album had no less than five indisuptable classics on it (I leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine which tracks I classify as such), and I believed that Up would be no different. Yet on the first listen, I was crushed - as somebody who's utterly adored the majority of Peter's lengthy career, I was disappointed beyond words that one of my all-time favorite musicians sounded so geniunely washed up. The arrangements and production were fine, but for the most part, they seemed to be masking a lack of truly original and good musical ideas. Nothing grabbed me like the opening of Us, none of the tracks seemed like instant classics, and I was genuinely outright bored, a statement I never ever thought I'd say about a Gabriel album.
Subsequent listens, however, at least somewhat changed my perspective. Not completely, but definitely somewhat. The most important thing for me, from a psychological perspective, was that the second listen revealed a track that could stand up to virtually anything in the entire Gabriel catalogue, which in turn told me that, at the very least, he wasn't yet washed up. I'm referring to "Growing Up," a track similar to the uptempo numbers on Us but that outdoes even those classics. From the great piano/violin introduction, to Peter's alternately haunting and grooving vocal melodies, to more of those dancable rhythms that are so distinctively Gabriel, to the neat permutations of the main themes that pop up, to the KILLER bassline that pops up in the sixth minute, to the general epic feel that's never overbearing, I'd be very hard-pressed to find reasons that this wouldn't have a solid place in the top ten tracks Peter ever did. Well, ok, I guess I can understand being bugged by the slightly cheezy organ that pops up under Peter's melodies from time to time (and in the coda), but I'm not bothered by it at all, so whatever.
Fortunately, "Growing Up" is NOT the only good track on the album, as I almost ended up thinking at times in the first few listens. Yet this does not change the fact that I find a slightly alarming amount of filler on the album, and even the tracks that don't qualify as filler manage to have their downsides. First on the list of filler is the track following "Growing Up," entitled "Sky Blue." There are some nice ideas in the arrangements, and the pleasant wordless singing at the end is a nice touch, but the actual song is neither stocked with good musical ideas nor with emotional resonance nor with anything particularly interesting in the atmosphere. Same goes for "I Grieve;" superficially it's all moving and emotional, but it continues to strike me as little more than emotional formalism, without anything to really move me.
There's also the issue of the advance single of the album, "The Barry Williams Show," which I know for a fact has discouraged a number of people I know from wanting to buy the album. It says something when a song is dated before its official release - I don't like Jerry Springer anymore than most people, but except for the rare cases when he has cripples on the show and pretends to be sympathetic but is really parading them a la a freak show, it's very hard to take anything on the show seriously. Yet Peter doesn't seem to be aware of that, as he presents a snide, vitriolic attack on the premise of the show, acting as if the comical farce is a serious affair. But lyrics aside, the music itself isn't much to write home about either. The chorus (with the one note backing vocals) is as banal as can be, the instrumental breaks reeeally make me squirm and fidget, and while the verse melody is decent at first, it loses its intensity as the track goes on. In short, I'm not sure that a worse choice for a lead single could have been made (the video is kinda amusing, though).
So that's about 30% of the album gone down the drain right away. The rest, though, is at least very good, so the album doesn't turn out as a total disappointment in the end. I actually originally lumped "No Way Out" in with the filler described previously, but that was before I found the lyrics, which are a well-done tale of a man holding a friend as his the friend's life ebbs away. That doesn't let the song off the hook, though - the best and most moving lyrics in the world aren't worth as much if it's so friggin' hard to make out what Peter's singing just from listening, and while I like the song now, I still have a vague feeling of pissitude because of that initial problem.
Ok, whining's basically over. The other half of the album is just fine as far as I'm concerned, and definitely enough to drive the album up to a 9. "Darkness" is a very neat way to start the album, and I'm sure that most listeners will identify with the experience I had hearing it for the first time - the song is very quiet for about 25 seconds, provoking an increase in the volume, and then there's LOUD GUITAR NOISE that flings you across the room. Of course, I wasn't very wowed over at first, as it was hard for me to see the track as much more than an "Intruder" ripoff (the lyrics follow a similar fear motif). However, I eventually realized that while there are superficial similarities, the aim of the song is different from "Intruder" - that track left the listener without recourse from the monsters of the world, whereas "Darkness" is more geared towards facing and overcoming fears. So yeah, it's a solid opener, one that makes good use of its vague Industrial leanings.
The other four tracks are the tracks which close out the album, and they do a good job of leaving a good taste in my mouth come album's end. "My Head Sounds Like That" shows somebody with some mental instability, both musically and lyrically - it's quiet and vaguely unsettling through most of it, then out of nowhere careens into LOUD madness, in the grand tradition of III. "More Than This," on the other hand, is much like the uptempo pop numbers from So, only with a slight epic tinge and some nice echoey U2-style guitars. Plus, it has a terrific coda, so even if there isn't much original to it in its essence, I find it very acceptable and enjoyable overall.
Next is the most experimental track on the album by far, the seven-and-a-half minute "Signal to Noise." I don't get as excited about the track as a lot of people seem to - I do like the arabesque chanting, but I don't buy into the notion that its very presence makes it better than other kinds of music. Truth be told, I think the chanting is a bit excessive in length, and the proper effect could have been conveyed with half of it. But enough complaining - the track is danged marvelous, with innovative (for rock music, anyway) string parts overlayed on neat percussion, all culminating in the great repeated "RECEIVE AND TRANSMIT" climax that can stay in my head for as long as it wants. Peter's vocal delivery rules, and his pleas to "WIPE OUT THE NOISE" over instrumental parts that are definitely more signal than noise are something to behold.
Of course, in typically perverse fashion, Peter doesn't end with the bombastic string-laden percussive epic, but rather with a pleasant piano-based ballad about falling out of an airplane. I'm not sure whether the people in question are skydiving, or if they're falling because the plane just cracked in two in midair and the people are about to die a miserable death (knowing Peter, it's probably the latter), but no matter. "The Drop" is perfectly lovely, and the soothing effect of Peter singing the line "watching as the sun goes down" cannot be overestimated.
So there's your album. Inconsistent as hell, laden with some miserable filler, but also with some incredible tracks as well. And hey, let's give credit where credit is due - the production is EXCELLENT, with every instrument given an incredible amount of breathing space and without any sense of artificiality in the sound. If nothing else, Peter shows convincingly on Up that he still knows how to use the latest advances in production technology for good instead of bad, and that's at least worth something. Let's just hope that I/O is as good or better, and that Peter releases it before I have my own ridiculous grey Leninesque beard.
CHRISTIAN W. H. (serene23.hotmail.com) (10/16/02)
I really love Up, its so great to hear Peter going back to the
more expirimental and dark sounds and textures from his earlier work.
There are even hints of early Genesis in the mix, the keyboard in
Darkness particularly. That track has received much flack, even from
fans, I LOVE IT! Blew my ears and speaker out when I first put the CD on
in my car. But to hear PG using his voice again in different ways, I
mean, not as dramatically as with Genesis, but still, to hear him use it
creatively at all again is a treat. Growing up is another great track,
the layers of vocals at the end give me chills, (I take this CD with me
everday to listen to while I do my hour long run, and I always find a new
sound, or melody, or bassline, or something new to hear everytime. But
love the driving bass to that one, how anyone can label this album as a
complete downer I can't understand. Sky Blue, the chorus at the fianle,
with the Blind Boys of Alabama is truly uplifting and gives me chills,
many of these songs are chill inducing in fact. The soaring chorus of No
Way Out is reminiscent of Red Rain, and what a killer guitar line. The
soul groove at the end of I Greive, again, another grand and uplifting
moment. If anyone took the time to listen to the lyrics they would
realize that the song isn't such a downer at all. Signal to Noise is
another favorite, the build of the song and the rythm, very reminiscent
of Security, nothing short of brilliant. More Than This is another Red
Rain sounding song, but great none the less. My Head Sounds like That
could be from Melt, its a song I relate to, hyper sensitivity, I get
lost in my own thoughts way to often, but in that time of complete
confusion, every sound around me penetrates my thoughts and drives me
mad. The Drop is beautiful, a bit haunting, I can't help but picture 9/11
with the falling and plane imagery, I know its not intended. That song
recalls my favorite version of Here Comes the Flood, from 16 Golden
Greats. I even like BWS, though it is my least favorite on the album. I
would go into more detail, but I am at work.
CHRISTIAN W. H. (serene23.hotmail.com) (10/23/02)
I am quite surprised by you harsh review of UP. I do appreciate your
comments though. You really should think about writing for a magazine,
you blow the Rolling Stone reviewers out of the water. They are
intelligent, thought out reviews by someone who really loves music. That
said. UP was thoroughly enjoyable from the first listening to the most
recent 100th...or so. From the opening chords of Darkness I was drawn in.
I don't find it an intruder rip off at all, its hard to think of a
greater opening track to any album in recent memory. In fact, "Darkness"
is my top pick off of UP. "Growing Up" is perfect as well, I even like
the "cheesy" organ, it grew on me. My biggest disagreement would have to
be "Sky Blue", the sparse arrangement, the passionate vocals...lyrically
I suppose its not that engaging, but when he gets to the part "and a
cry, what a cry, what a cry its going to be" I can't help but start
belting, it charges me (as I mentioned, I run all the time to this CD)
Its quite a moving cd, and its his voice that moves me, whether its Peter
singing lyrics or just wailing, e.g.. "A Different Drum". I thought you
would at least rate this higher than So. Its far more rewarding than So,
and I would have to say Us for that matter. And, Peter Gabriel at his
worst is far superior to most of the music out there. I suggest taking
this CD with you on a jog, or a walk, you may have a different experience
with it.
No, its not better than Security or PG3, but, there isn't much out there
musically that is, with the exception of "The Lamb Lies Down On
Broadway", "Suppers Ready" or the occasional Pink Floyd song. I would
have to rate this one along side those though.
My choices from favorite to least favorite would;d have to go like this
1.Security
2.Melt
3.UP
4.Passion (though this goes into a different category all together I
think)
5.US
6.Scratch
7. Birdy
8. OVO
9.SO
10.PG1
11. Rabbit Proof Fence (you haven't reviewed this yet?)
Have you heard any of the B sides? I would love to hear your comments on
those as well.
Pyramid2112.aol.com (10/23/02)
A frequent visitor to your website, and a contributor of a few comments to
your page, I respect your opinions on Gabriel's new CD, but unfortunately I'm
gonna disagree with you on some points.
I'll give you this; I wasn't sucked into "Up" when I first got it either, but
now I can't stop listening to it. And "The Barry Williams Show" is a far cry
from his best work, though not necessarily a bad song, but kinda silly,
almost like he intentionally wrote a 'radio friendly' song to somewhat please
his label or the idea of "Sledgehammer Part II" . It takes a few listens for
it to sink into your mind, like many other of Gabriel's works, but the time
you spend getting into it will pay off in the long run.
About "Sky Blue," I don't think it's filler at all. True it's about as
exciting or energetic as molasses, but I find the vocal harmonies and the
melody of the song to be absolutely breathtaking and beautiful, in a very
eerie way. One of my favorites on the album. "I Grieve" is also a great song,
in my opinion, though slow and dragging at first. And as for the album being
a disappointment, I will disagree with you on that as well. True, it's been
10 years since Us, one of his finest works, and there has been an
overwhelming amount of pressure for Gabriel to follow it up, and to me he
suceeded. He didn't play it safe by releasing a "So" or "Us" rip-off album.
Instead he worked very diligently, with over 150 ideas, until he felt that
the music he made was right for the new album. It's also different from other
Gabriel albums. It's not as poppy as So, or as manic as PG3 (or Melt), and
the absence of hit potential is a bummer for some. Others just can't forgive
him for making them wait for 10 years to release a new album. But this is
more of a success than a failure.
"Darkness" and "My head Sounds Like That" are the best songs on this album.
Both of those songs are haunting and deep, and rivals "San Jacinto" and "No
Self Control" as my favorite Gabriel songs.
To me, this is his greatest album since "Security" and based on all of the
other mainstream garbage being forced down my throat today (I'm a 17-year old
high school student, enough said), this album made me somewhat optimistic
that at least ONE of rock's greatest innovators hasn't sold out or become
stale. Also, for a personal album released this year, Beck's Sea Change is
great too.
Gustavo Cirigliano (guscir.hotmail.com) (10/29/02)
I'm agree with you in many of your reviews, but with this one I must
disagree.
UP is from begining to end, a masterpiece in all aspects. No Way Out, Sky
Blue, Signal to noise, Darkness, The Drop. I almost cry when I first hear
it.
BUT, I think this is a controvertial album, and understand that someone
dislike it.
For me, UP is for Gabriel what Islands is for King Crimson. A record to
listen when it's cloudy.
TheRubberCow.aol.com (1/22/03)
That's strange. I think mine and your asessment and rating even out to
be the same thing, but for slightly different reasons. I am not very
intrigued at all with "My Head Sounds Like That", "Signal to Noise", or
"The Drop", but the rest I can definately listen to (even "The Barry
Williams Show" is the least interesting of these...I agree comepletly
with your take on it). I, too, was dissapointed when I first heard "I
Grieve" on someone else's copy of the City of Angel's soundtrack...I
thought it sounded like a lesser version of a combination of "San
Jacinto" and "Mercy Street." And then I was dissapointed in hearing the
album, and it has grown on me, but not enough to where I feel very
excited about it. However, I have now seen the light with "I Greive", a
song I previously thought was insubstancial has now reavealed itself to
be a well thought out work of art. As for the rest, I think "Darkness"
is at least cool sounding with a nice vocal and piano part, "Sky Blue"
doesn't bother me, but yeah, that's about all....."No Way Out".....might
have to listen closer, but it sounds pretty good.... "Barry
Williams".....if this really was the single, the I have to
ask.......why??? There are two much more obvious choices for a single
in "Growing Up" and "More Than This." These two are instead unmistakably
catchy and actually sound like really high quality Peter Gabreil music,
esp. the latter. I like the way "More Than This" is EQ'ed with that sort
of decorated but with a lack of oxygen approach that was on Us. Well,
don't wanna make a long response even longer, so I'm gonna go poop on
chickens.
Eric B. (sonicdeath10.hotmail.com) (12/15/03)
i really like this album and it's return to the darker textures of past
albums. some of the songs are a bit fillerish i agree. i used to think
barry williams show was really vapid and obvious. then i watched the
growing up live dvd and i my intereptation isn't that peter's saying "OH
WOW TALK SHOWS ARE BAD OH NO!!!!!!" i actually think the song is about
the effect hosting the show has on the host himself, not as much on the
people participating. i'm sorry i can't offer much more reasoning behind
my belief, but if you watch the DVD you might know what i mean.
also the song sounds better live. more organic than the original.
robert chaundy (robchaundy.yahoo.com) (6/16/04)
After an initial burst of enthusiasm and a prolonged period of
disappointment, I now find, to my immense satisfaction, that I am liking
Up more and more with every listen.
The first two tracks are magnificent; they are classics that showpiece
most of the things that have made Peter Gabriel great over the past
twenty years: menacing heaviness, agonising tenderness, psychological
torture, enigmatic obscurity, catchy riffs, immense danceability and a
faint leavening of ironic humour. I don't believe that modern rock music
gets much more inventive or enjoyable than this, and if the rest of the
world has remained wilfully ignorant of these mini-masterpieces then more
fool the rest of the world.
If there is one word to describe Up, though, it would have to be
'overwrought' - literally so. The sheer volume of work that has been
poured into these songs has deadened some of them, and rendered the
others extremely dense-sounding and difficult to palate. This, in tandem
with the fact that the album really doesn't flow well - it is a
collection of individual songs with no real unifying theme or sonic
coherence, and as such not in PG's recent tradition - makes it fair game
for some of the criticism it has received. I don't think there can be any
question that he did take a little too long over making Up, that he got
too close to it to see its faults. This is no great crime though, and
doesn't mean any of Up is bad or weak - I don't think any of it is. But
it is overworked.
These considerations aside, though, the more I listen, the harder I find
it to criticise. Even such generally hated tracks as The Barry Williams
Show have somehow burrowed under my skin, even if the vocal melody was
brazenly ripped off the (superior) Tower That Ate People, and even if
Burn You Up, Burn You Down would have filled the obligatory
'funk-workout' slot much more satisfactorily.
My personal favourites are as adverted to above, plus the final three
songs. 'More Than This' stood out immediately as the only obvious
successor to 'Make Tomorrow'. That song had filled me with hope that Up
would be composed of similar textured, heart-wrenching epics, and whilst
the fact that only 'More Than This' came close to delivering was of
itself a disappointment, the fact that it did was of itself satisfying.
'Signal To Noise' is by general consensus a sonically adventurous
classic, and even if the lyrics do seem rather pedestrian at times, it
packs a powerful, powerful punch. And sounds to me like it might well be
a continuation of the mysterious series of 'Mozo' songs which ran
on-and-off through the first ten years of PG's solo career.
And 'The Drop' is a masterstroke. Musically, it gets right to the soul of
the man - he has no studio trickery to hide behind, and he revels in his
nakedness. The lyric is another work of genius, too - it has widely been
misinterpreted as a meditation on air crashes and death, but it clearly
isn't - it is about the onset of middle age, and the anxiety over where
the years that do remain are disappearing into. No crash, bang or
violence, just lonely, haunted contemplation. As such, it is ten times
more subtle, moving and thought-provoking than a trite dissertation on
The End could ever be.
So overall, this is not an improvement on Us, so must objectively be
judged a greater or a lesser step backwards. But it has certain strengths
his previous records don't, and goes to certain places he hadn't gone
before. This record's weaknesses are really not very serious, and
certainly don't disqualify it from occupying a place in or very near the
top drawer of his work.
And one final thing - tilt the album cover 45 degrees, then hold it
adjacent to the cover of PG CD1... I might be imagining things, but I
don't think I am.
Good work Peter - roll on the next album.
Simon B. (slb23.shaw.ca) (10/26/04)
I got Up two years ago, and i must say it was generally a hard record to
get into. A few songs stuck out at first ("Darkness", "No Way Out", "The
Drop") but others took me over a year to appreciate ("Growing Up",
"Growing Up", "Signal to Noise") and I still haven't completely warmed up
to "More Than This" (I think it's still rather bland and repetitive) and
"Barry Williams Show" (which I think is out of place in the album -
disrupts the flow; and I think there's too much going on vocally in the
chorus, IMHO).
However, one can tell that it took a long time to carefully layer all the
instruments, and attend to every sonic detail. Up also has really good
sound quality; deep, wide and full. (A huge step up from Us, which I
thought had a rather thin and a bit flat sound quality).
Up is also one of the most emotionally affecting albums in PG's solo
career, with songs dealing with fears ("Darkness"), death ("I Grieve",
"No Way Out", and possibly "The Drop"), growing up (you guessed it ---
"Growing Up"), and modern themes like reality TV ("Barry Williams Show"),
and technology ("Signal to Noise" --- not sure though...).
IMHO, Up is Gabriel's best album in more than a decade (So), or even two
decades (PG 3 "Melt").
acg3dinst.aol.com (12/31/05)
I read with interest your comment that many people avoided this album
after hearing "The Barry Williams Show". That song just sucks, and I
still avoid it. That's what happened to me. I didn't like "SO" or
"US", so I eagerly awaited UP, but with some trepidations. BWS just
turned me off completely for 2-1/2 years, and it wasn't until I read
some of the reviews that I ventured to give it a chance. The various
reviews all seemed to say the same thing, which is that this album
grows on you with repeated listening, and that's my experience too.
I think you sum it up correctly. I'm in complete agreement with your
evaluations of the individual songs. For my taste, not liking the
two "Big Time" albums, this was a step up.
cjc.crowe.ca (05/28/06)
Just wanted to add my 2 cents to what the other guy said of your " Up "
review.
I've been a Gabriel fanatic for as long as I can remember (am now 40). Still
think he's a genius. Problem is, or so I believe, that like most of us, he
can be lazy at times and there seemed ample evidence of such on this
particular album. It is the first Gabriel album I can remember where you
listen to it once and don't get the feeling that it will just keep getting
even better the more times you replay it. Given the theme (death), one gets
the impression that perhaps he'd come across a crossroads in his life, sat
down on a bench to reflect on the meaning of it all, and then jammed a dozen
or so of already compiled work in to an album. The result, while far less
than what we have come to expect from Mr. G over the years, is still
adequate but (in keeping with the theme !) lacks a certain joie de vivre as
it were ! Some tunes do in fact have cumulative " Animal Magic " for me,
with " I Grieve " being at the forefront.
I'm guessing, however, that there are some gems within the body of the 150
tunes he wrote during the period prior which will surface eventually and,
one hopes, on the ever eventually upcoming I/O album (trying to figure out
an actual release date for that album calls to mind the expression " How
long is a piece of string ?").
Very much enjoyed your album review and it was indeed better than anything
one generally reads in Rolling Stone.
Chris (Ontario Canada)
Trfesok.aol.com (06/13/11)
I guess the general consensus was that this was the weakest album Peter had put out
up to this point, and I'm forced to agree. With one exception, it doesn't seem that
the actual songwriting is bad at all. (I'd really like to hear the initial demos).
The lyrics are strong, as usual, if quite dark.
The first problem is that most of the songs are just too damn long. The lengths of
most of these are 6-7 minutes long, and they didn't really need to be. Some of the
songs on Us are that long, but they don't seem it. Which brings me to problem number
two -- the production. On Us, there are all sorts of interesting musical things
going on which never make the songs overstay their welcome. But here, a lot of the
music is just plain dull, or full of obnoxious noises ("Darkness" and "Growing Up",
with that overly loud and monotonous, industrial sounding, drum machine, come to
mind). There's just nothing innovative and exciting about the music. And I'm in
total agreement about "The Barry Williams Show", which is totally out of place here.
(It's too bad that "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" wasn't included, instead -- that
would have made a perfect lead single, and would have fit in well on the album,
too).
So, as it is, the skeletons of these songs are fine, but the meat on them is not so
appetizing. I was going to say, "Better luck next time, until I read your next
review!
Ross Dryer (dryerross.yahoo.com) (02/13/13)
I think I'm at the point where I can safely say that this is easily one of my top five Peter Gabriel albums, and I was actually
able to get into it way before I got into Us. Like you said, the production is awesome, and the arrangements are absolutely top-
notch, too. But I'm pretty sure I think the quality of the songwriting is MUCH higher than what you think. For example, "Darkness"
is something I regard much higher than "pretty neat"- I utterly love this song, and it's one of FIVE on the album that are
definitely in my Top 20 PG list. This song is fantastic- it might seem cheap at first, and overlong (a BIG problem, by the way:
seven of the songs go over seven minutes, and two aren't far behind), but the way, during the first verse, that the "loud" section
is very quiet and slowly starts to take over but is met with a shimmering "That's not the way it has to be..." is genius. So is the
absolutely beautiful "Cruising through the undergrowth..." part, with a gorgeous piano line appearing every so often. It's
devastating, and then it's extremely uplifting.
Then there's "Growing Up", another classic. I'm not going to ramble about it because you've done enough of that.
There's also "I Grieve", and though I can't remember much of that one musically, I really love the rhythm and the atmosphere, not
to mention the arrangement. I also think it's cool that it comes after "No Way Out" as a sort of "continuation". I basically feel
the same way about "More Than This"- I really like it while it's on, and the Spanish guitar is great, but I cannot remember but
bits and pieces after it's over- because "Signal to Noise" has started.
"The Barry Williams Show" is, of course, universally hated, almost like and infomercial is, but I find it interesting. It
definitely doesn't need to be over seven minutes long, or the album's main single (that'd probably be "More Than This"), but it's
become a sort of guilty pleasure to me. Whatever you say, the jazzy-funky groove is cool, the bassline is really groovy, and the
verse melody is quite interesting, and for some reason I find myself singing along to the chorus, cheap as it is, and I ESPECIALLY
enjoy the hilarious brass breaks. I don't know why. Leave me alone.
"No Way Out" is also quite fascinating for me. It's one of the few on here that actually does have a "ethnic beat", and it has a
very nice riff, a beautiful chorus, a supercool coda, and gorgeous lyrics. There's also "The Drop", which does remind of "Here
Comes the Flood", but of course it's much creeper and much more unsettling. Sheesh- what does it mean? I actually think this would
be the soundtrack to a bunch of people falling out of a plane...
"Signal to Noise"? WHOAH! Okay, I don't care for Nusrat's wailing at all- at least it doesn't very long. But the climax this track
hits has got to be the greatest, hugest climax Peter's ever hit, even higher than "Apocalypse in 9/8", which is saying A LOT. And
it's so cool that this track is the one that actually feels most "epic", even though it's not any longer than most of the tracks on
here. And, of course, "My Head Sounds like That" was the first song on the album I knew I loved. It's so sickly gorgeous, and
unsettlingly beautiful...and LOUD, at some point. But do you know what? The main hook of the song
("Oh...my...head...oh...oh...oh...") is stolen almost directly from the Flaming Lips' "The Spark That Bled"! You remember, "The
softest bullet ever shooo-oooo-ooot..."? Same chords, same tempo, same feeling...
And then there's "Sky Blue". I will call you out THREE TIMES for this number. How does it start? It's got the weird "heathaze"
sound going across, then it's got the quiet, slow rhythm, and the super-subtle guitar, and eventually there are a bunch of echoey,
beautiful pianos going. It all puts the most vivid image in my mind of Peter walking alone in the desert, or on a bunch of cracked
earth, in with the sky...okay, it's not a blue sky, but a sky as gray as the album cover. The song has an extremely simple, but
beautiful and heart-wrenching verse melody, but it's the chorus that REALLY does it- that "Oh-ohohoh-OHHHHH" is one of the most
perfect melodies I've ever heard out of Peter, and the counter-melody ("I keep moving to be stable...free to wander, free to roam")
is perfect with it. And then, the bridge... "What a cry it's going to be." I think the main reason you don't care for this version
too much is because it's not the big, powerful anthem the LWH version was; instead, it's a very sad, complaintive song, and is
arranged suchly. One more of those form-imitating-content thingies, like "The Tower that Ate People". It just wouldn't make SENSE
for the Up version to be a giant anthemic thing- how do you make a giant anthemic thing out of a song about being nomadic and
homesick? I think both versions work equally well: this one has lines like "I know how to fly, I know how to drown in Sky Blue,"
while that one has a sad, but triumphant feel to it. And, really, I can't hear much difference between the climaxes of both anyway;
it's just that the LWH version has some stupid antimusical aboriginal chanting in it and is a bit louder. This one is just a bit
more subtle. And subtlety, as we know, is the sister of wit. Or something like that.
Oh, wait, I have an idea! Why don't we make "Sky Blue" a big, ten-minute "Make Tomorrow"-ish thing by expanding it further until it
has the arrangements of the LWH version? That would potentially be my favorite PG song ever. A B from me.
Best song: ehn, maybe The Book Of Love
This is dangerously close to being a very bad album, and I really wish somebody had been able to talk some sense into Peter as he put this together. In the midst of sorting through dozens of unfinished songs, Peter decided he would take a break and do an album of covers. The idea behind Scratch My Back was that he would do covers of songs by various artists he liked, and then they in turn would cover songs Peter had done, and there could be two albums, Scratch My Back and I'll Scratch Yours out in stores at the same time. In trying to bring this idea to fruition, though, Peter made a major strategic error: he failed to account for the possibility that maybe, just maybe, not everybody on his list of artists would have the time or inclination to cover a Peter Gabriel song, at this late a date, just because he wanted them to. If he really wanted to make this happen, he should have gotten twelve artists on board with agreements to do HIS songs first, and then pick songs from those who volunteered for the task. While some of the corresponding artists came through (Magnetic Fields did a rousing "Not One of Us," and the Paul Simon cover of "Biko" is quite lovely), half of them (as of early 2011) hadn't, and the whole process made Peter look a little foolish.
Not as foolish as the contents of the album, though. Peter decided to impose a restriction on himself - no guitars of any kind, and no drums - and while this could have led to interesting synth layerings intertwined with orchestral elements, Peter uses orchestration almost the entire time (with a very small amount of piano here and there). So that makes this into an orchestral covers album, which doesn't really seem all that impressive when I remember the pleasant-but-mediocre Justin Hayward solo album, Classic Blue, from 20 years earlier. Of course, there is a significant difference between this album and that one; Peter deconstructs a lot of the material into sombre, dirge-like interpretations of the originals, with the melodies stripped down so far they start to lose their melodic core. The worst offender, and the one that I unfortunately heard first, is the closing "Street Spirit" (originally from Radiohead), where Peter almost enters William Shatner territory. It's AWFUL, and makes a higher grade totally out of the question.
There are, I admit, some tracks where I find myself enjoying things a bit. The opening ""Heroes"," where Peter starts on the, "I, I wish you could swim ..." verse, makes this sound like a promising experience, and the cover of Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love" turns a moderately silly song into a moderately melancholy song, to surprisingly good effect. The cover of Talking Heads' "Listening Wind" nails the atmosphere of the original dead on despite having (obviously) a totally different arrangement, and ... uh ..."Mirrorball" (by a band called Elbow) sounds pretty. On the other hand, the rest of the album ranges from fairly unremarkable to really tacky (the bombastic parts of "My Body is a Cage" by Arcade Fire, though the softer parts are kinda nice, or all of "Apres moi" by Regina Spektor).
On the whole, pretty much the only consistent positive is that, even when he's doing an ill-conceived project, Peter's voice is still as addictive as ever, and a large part of me feels happy to have one more medium in which to hear him. But even his voice can't save this: this may have been a project Peter totally believed in and poured his heart into, but when I hear this, I think of David St. Hubbins and his desire to record a few of his acoustic songs with the London Symphony Orchestra. After 40 years, Peter finally made a mediocre album.
Michael S. Rovner (mike.msrsystems.com) (02/13/12)
Are you serious- This album is stellar - he has taken these sounds to a whole new level of artistic meaning - which by the masses
of people who refer to this album as a favorite of theirs, is a beautiful piece of art.
The singing, the playing , and the artistic use of the orchestra is captivating.
And then Peter comes out with "New Blood". It is another landmark recording. Everyone I know loves these albums. I can listen to
those over and over all day long and get mesmerized by the genius of Peter.
I started listing to Genesis back in 1973. Peter is a genius in my book. No body has done what he has done. His writing and skill
of singing like it is two people with his harmonically rich voice is more engaging than any one else I know.
I am a musician and have the skills to play in any band - if I had a chance to play with anyone - the top of the list would be
Genesis with Peter.
Best song: It's basically a compilation, after all
Making the followup to Scratch My Back into what's essentially an "orchestral self-covers" album may show a disappointing lack of ambition, but this is a much more enjoyable album than its predecessor nonetheless. As on the last album, Peter follows a strict no percussion allowed, piano-and-orchestra-only rule (except for the weirdly out of place new track, "A Quiet Moment," which is some sort of ambient track I guess), but he makes one major improvement from his previous approach: instead of trying to cram all of the material into the same downbeat, ultra-minimalist, dirge-like mode that dominated Scratch My Back, he allows the arrangements to take on the same rich tapestry of atmospheres that made most of these tracks so enjoyable in the first place. There's some melancholy and darkness, sure, but there's also majesty and joy, and the result is that the album is a far less oppressive experience than its predecessor. Plus, Peter ends up finding some rather innovative solutions to the problem of how to handle the "no drums allowed" constraint when dealing with tracks that had once been percussion-heavy: "The Rhythm of the Heat," "Intruder" and "Digging in the Dirt" especially deserve high marks in this regard.
The song selection is fairly unpredictable for such an endeavour, and takes this album beyond the glorified greatest hits affair that it could have been. Security gets a surprising three tracks; aside from the aforementioned "Rhythm," the album also includes remakes of "San Jacinto" (no worse than the original) and "Wallflower" (extremely moving, and enough to lift my feelings towards the original a bit). The selections from So aren't as surprising, but we still get a lovely "Mercy Street" in addition to the fairly predictable "Red Rain" (lovely), "In Your Eyes" (cheerful but a little overlong) and "Don't Give Up" (arrrrrrrrrrgh). III gets the aforementioned "Intruder," OVO has two interesting selections in "Downside Up" and "The Nest That Sailed the Sky," Up gets "Darkness" (a little sillier in its melodrama here than in the original, but still fine), and of course the album ends with "Solsbury Hill" (lots of fun). This isn't a perfect setlist, but it's not a bad one either
If there's a general drawback to the album aside from the feel that it's mildly redundant, it's that Peter's daughter Melanie, featured on many tracks as one of the female backing vocalists (and serving as the sole one on "Downside Up") hasn't improved much since the Growing Up Live DVD, where she was a slight embarrassment. On the other hand, Ane Brun contributes some fantastic backing vocals, and this balances out the Melanie weakness fairly well. In the end, this album probably turned out about as well as it could have, and while it's a little pointless, it's still a blast to listen to a couple of times. Casual fans need not bother, but hardcore fans will probably enjoy this plenty.
Ross Dryer (dryerross.yahoo.com) (02/13/13)
I can't believe you're falling for this crap. Well, I guess you're not falling for it hard, since you're giving it an 8, but most
of this is just absolute DISASTER. Every track (except "San Jacinto") now has some huge problem, and most of the time it's these
stupid female backing vocals. Now, I don't have anything against female vocals in theory (Renaissance and ABBA are among my
favorite bands ever, plus I liked the backing vocals on "Us"), but these two girls are just awful, and of course, in this
environment, their voices are directly juxtaposed with Peter's. Not only do these girls not have the power or range of Peter,
Melanie Gabriel doesn't have any power or range AT ALL, and Ane Brun (or whatever her name was) has this super-shaky voice that is
really irritating. And they normally chime in at the emotional climaxes. WTH?!?
Okay. What do we get when we first turn on the album? We get a few seconds of silence...then Peter's powerful scream...then we have
a cello pushing forward the main rhythm...we have some build, good arrangement...then we get the backing vocals...oh, wait, there's
the first problem. When they whisper "The rhythm of the heat", there is absolutely no way I can take it seriously. But the
arrangement is still VERY good up to this point...and then the girls sing that backup "Drawn across the plainland..." verse. Why?
It's supposed to be POWERFUL. And then...oh, yeah. Eventually, when it gets to the "tribal rush-to-the-end" thing, we, of course,
don't get a barrage of drums. We get an UNBELIEVABLY stupid, unnecessary orchestral passage. I mean, what were they actually trying
to do here? Were they trying to be "scary"? "Tribal"? It doesn't sound scary OR tribal! So why the heck is it there? It's just a
disjointed, stupid mess. "Innovative", my hat. Grrrrrr.
Next is "Downside Up". This sounded so pretty on "OVO", didn't it? So why does it give me such an icky schmaltzy feeling on here?
Also, why did they get rid of that GORGEOUS guitar groove in the middle where they go, "OVO...OVO..."? Also, why is Melanie's voice
SO inferior to Liz Fraser's? Also, why does Peter mispronounce the word "centripetal"? Not the worst thing on here, but...
Nearly restoring my faith in Peter (which I guess is more painful than anything) is "San Jacinto", which is the only almost-
complete success on here (besides "Wallflower", I guess). I think turning the woodwind line into a piano/woodwind/strings line was
an excellent idea, Peter's voice hasn't lost anything, the climax is also done very well, and the creepy coda is everything I could
have asked it to be. The only thing is that we REALLY needed an excuse to use the girls, so they do the tribal thing, and they
don't sound very comfortable with it. Ugh! Great song anyhow.
What's next? "Intruder"? Oh yeah. What is with the almost complete silence throughout most of the verses? We get to concentrate
completely on Peter's "creepy" voice. And it's not creepy at all. And the loud parts are just a stupid, disjointed mess (hmm, where
have I heard that before?) that's definitely not scary. The thing that really made the original so great was the drums holding
everything together. Now there's nothing. Also, why do we get "stuck" going "Leave his mark... Leave his mark... Leave his
mark..."? What the heck is that? And Melanie's "aaaa-aaaahh..."? Disaster!
Then there's "Wallflower", a song I've always loved. This version really is moving, arranged as a piano/string quartet number, and
Peter sounds gorgeous. The only thing, once again, is that Melanie gets to sing that verse near the end ("Though you may
disappear..."), and I would rather just hear Peter sing it. Sigh. Good song.
"In Your Eyes". Ahh. I've always loved this one, too, but I REALLY don't need seven minutes of it, especially when the verses are
suddenly so boring, and the bulk of the track is spent on a bunch of pointless orchestra-ing. And the girls, once again, need to
shut the heck up, especially with that stupid "Hey!...Hey!..." near the end. Gee.
"Mercy Street", six minutes long, is also very boring in this state as well. I have to admit that for a few seconds it's magical,
though. Ane Brun also gets to sing solo for the first time on the album, and you'd better believe I'm not to happy about that. And,
wouldn't you know it, the album's only half over! Brilliant!
"Red Rain" is next. The arrangement is actually not half bad here, it's actually Peter that's the problem, and he slaughters it. He
sounds like he REALLY needs to clear his throat during every chorus. Sigh...
"Darkness" sounds incredibly stupid here, especially with the electronic encoding of Peter's voice. And what happened to that
beautiful crystal-clear piano, especially in the "Walking through the undergrowth..." part? Come to think of it, why not "Sky Blue"
instead?
"Don't Give Up"? Newsflash, Peter: NOBODY LIKES THIS SONG. If you record it without the synths, but with an even shakier female
vocalist and with the same ridiculous length and without the bassline which was the ONLY REDEEMING THING about the original, we're
going to like it even less. Disgusting!
"Digging in the Dirt", a song I friggin' adore, doesn't sound very good either, especially when the girls get the
"ItoldyaItoldyaItoldyaItoldya!" bit and when Peter gets in his "I feel it in my sex". If this were the first incarnation of it I
listened to, I wouldn't want to listen to the original at all.
"The Nest That Sailed the Sky" is nice, but only because you can't put the girls in it. Plus, the piano sounds good. So, nice. I
guess.
"A Quiet Moment" is easily the best track on here; okay, I'm kidding, that's "San Jacinto", but still. No clumsy, stupid
arrangements. No powerless female backing vocals. No scratchy-voice Peter. But why do we need it, again? Didn't John Cage already
think of this?
And finally, "Solsbury Hill". Somehow it doesn't shine so brightly in its Paul Simon-esque glory when you change the guitar for
piano and orchestra, or when you put in the girls going "Hey! Hey! Hey!", or when you put in Peter's SCATTING, but it's still a
good song.
So my question is: WHAT THE HECK WAS PETER ON?!? What on Earth made him think most of this was a good idea? Sure beats me! I just
hope "Input/Output" comes out reeeeeeal soon, because if this is Peter's last studio recording, I'm not going to be happy.
Best song: The Drop I guess
A live album to cap off the "Peter goes orchestral" project was inevitable, but that doesn't mean it was really necessary. In person, I bet this would have been a lot of fun (especially since this album was recorded a while before the release of New Blood), and maybe if he hadn't released New Blood I would find more novelty here than I do, but as is this pretty much just rehashes the other orchestral albums, and what few additions this album does provide are more mixed than I might have guessed. There is a rather lovely rendition of "The Drop" here, with very sparse orchestration, and "Biko" works decently enough in this context to deserve repeated listens. Sadly, though, "Signal to Noise," the one Gabriel number here to have featured an orchestral in its original context, falls surprisingly flat, simply because the lack of chanting turns out to leave a glaring hole, and the minimalist backing vocals from Ane Brun and Melanie Gabriel simply aren't strong or interesting enough to fill it (this is actually a more general problem on the album than just this song; I didn't mind them too much on New Blood, and actually liked Ane quite a bit there, but they both come across as pretty second-rate here, and there are times when Melanie barely even gets to that level).
I don't want to go nuts and pretend that large parts of this aren't enjoyable. Everything that worked on New Blood basically works here ("San Jacinto" ends up pretty rousing in this setting, as do "Red Rain" and "Mercy Street"), and I actually like the rendition of "The Boy in the Bubble" (preceded by a hilarious spoken introduction, in which Peter first comes clean that the process of getting other people to cover his songs hadn't gone quite like he'd hoped it would, and then mentions that, for "The Boy in the Bubble" he "stripped all the African blood out of it, and we're left with another miserable white man's song") here more than on Scratch my Back, and overall the list of included songs is pretty decent. And yet, 2 hours and 20 minutes is an awful lot of time to spend listening to something like this, where everything gets pounded into the same general template, and I say that as somebody whose tolerance for late-period live albums that function as compilations is quite high.
Also, surprise surprise, "Don't Give Up" is no better live with an orchestra than in studio with an orchestra, and it was no better in studio with an orchestra than it was originally. What a gross way to finish the "regular" performances (there's a rendition of "The Nest That Sailed the Sky" to close out, and while it's basically just the original version it leaves a better taste in my mouth than what came before it).
Honestly, if he had just removed the covers (except maybe "The Book of Love"), thrown away the orchestra, and released a live album with the same track listing as found here but with his regular band, I probably would have ended up enjoying it significantly more. As is, as great as so many of the songs here are in their essence, and as well as Peter's voice continues to hold up, I just can't feel much enthusiasm for this.
Peter Gabriel Music on Jango
Trespass: I like Looking for Someone and Visions of Angels
Nursery: Musical Box, Hogweed, 7 Stones, Harold!!
Foxtrott: Supper, a absolutely fantastic little Rock Opera (how many years i have sung them tunes, danced to it, created choreographies
etc... a truly inspiring and never forgotten song)
Selling England: my top favourite: Firth of Fifth, that song has influenced my handling, my art work (paintings) and my thinking, my
soul. 2nd song After the ordeal.
the lamb lies down. No comment, that is too personal on half of the songs, that was me and i was him there, in the rapids....
Peter Gabriel - 1977 Atco
8
(Good / Mediocre)
Peter Gabriel 2 - 1978 Atco
A
(Very Good / Good)
PS I do think "White shadow" is something closer to Zep's Kashmir, not
exactly a Firth of fifth new version. But that's my silly opinion,
anyway!!
*Peter Gabriel 3 - 1980 Geffen*
E
(Great)
Security - 1981 Geffen
C
(Very Good / Great)
Plays Live - 1983 Geffen
B
(Very Good)
Birdy - 1985 Geffen
A
(Very Good / Good)
So - 1986 Geffen
8
(Good / Mediocre)
7.5 (11)
Passion - 1989 Geffen
A
(Very Good)
Us - 1992 Geffen
D
(Great / Very Good)
Secret World Live - 1994 Geffen
A
(Very Good / Good)
OVO - 2000 Realworld
B
(Very Good)
Long Walk Home 2002 RealWorld
B
(Very Good)
Up - 2002 Geffen
9
(Good)
Scratch My Back - 2010 Realworld
6
(Mediocre)
New Blood - 2011 Realworld
8
(Good / Mediocre)
Live Blood - 2012 Realworld
7
(Mediocre / Good)