capsule reviews of miscellaneous titles by
PETER GABRIEL

Peter Gabriel
1, 2, 3    (1995)

Comments: Early Peter Gabriel efforts reveal a man whose intense visions required a solo career rather than a band effort. He needed the final word and the freedom to forge new sounds. The results are very mixed and muddy.
     The first two albums are full of dark sonic explorations, full of big and interesting sounds. But rarely do things congeal into something memorable and singable. "Solsbury Hill" is a standout track that remains one of Gabriel's most glorious achievements, a messianic tale of inspiration and elevation. It's thrilling. "Here Comes the Flood" strives to be a sort of apocalyptic hymn. Melodically it works, but the sound flaunts the song as self-important. It found a much more effective vehicle in a later version, with Gabriel sitting alone at the piano. There, it becomes mournful, a quiet prayer. The rest sounds like the chrysalis of a monster, some new sound ready to be born.
     And on his third self-titled album, the beast was born.
     That third album, sometimes called "Melt" because of the cover picture of Gabriel's head disintegrating, is as dark and terrifying a rock record as you'll ever hear. Gabriel has said he feels it is a sort of personal mission to travel into the darkest places and find light there. An admirable quest. These are dark places indeed. "Intruder" sounds like a serrated saw blade scraping at a metal fence, trying to gain entry into private sacred things. It sets the tone for an album about psychotic killers, thieves, and politicians. There's the boundless violence of "No Self Control", the fear and panic of an amnesiac in "I Don't Remember", and the reckless military maneuvers of "Games Without Frontiers". By illustrating this freakish gallery of monsters, he shows us the problem. And then, in a startling reversal, he puts us in the place of the victims, the suffering, and celebrates the virtues of one man who lives selflessly and sacrificially for the sake of truth and justice... Steven Biko. Just as U2 makes a triumphal march out of Martin Luther King's story in "Pride", Gabriel's "Biko" is one of those songs destined to close arena-rock shows in tearful tribute to a true hero. Previous albums felt like Gabriel was all business. This time, it sounds like, as Bono likes to say, "God walked through the room." Gabriel's work never recovered, and his following efforts have all been touched by something akin to Divine Intervention.

Essential tracks from #3: "Games Without Frontiers", "Biko", "I Don't Remember"

Jeffrey's Sum-Ups:
album 1 - Worth Hearing 
album 2- Worth Hearing 
album 3 - Impressive

Peter Gabriel
Security      (1982)

Comments: In the U.S., this album is called "Security"; everywhere else it's just another album called "Peter Gabriel".
     Once again, we have that claustrophobia-inducing sound dense with thunderous rhythms, vast echoing atmospherics, and urgent, sinister guitars with Peter Gabriel sounding almost weary of the darkness he explores. "Shock the Monkey" is one of the most manic, frantic singles he's ever offered, looking at the human drive for knowledge and its tendency to forego compassion or care. "Family Snapshot" is from the troubled perspective of a boy loading the pistol for a political assassination. "I Have the Touch" might be the song of the boy's target, a glad-handing politician out to press the flesh and win the votes. It's the first of several Gabriel songs that poke fun at the powerful and self-centered. "San Jacinto" gives this album a soaring anthem of pathos and resilience as the singer "holds the line" for a people and a country being slowly overrun. Later, Gabriel would perform this song live in front of the projected silhouettes of dancing Native Americans... a haunting manifestation of the ghosts that lurk in the song.

Outstanding tracks: "Family Snapshot", "Shock the Monkey", "I Have the Touch"

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Impressive

Peter Gabriel
Birdy    (1985)

Comments: Peter Gabriel's venture into soundtracks revealed him to be an inventive instrumental composer who focuses on tones, rhythms, and minimalist soundscapes rather than melodies. "Birdy" is a troubling film, and the music here borrows liberally from Gabriel's "Security" for haunting, spare melodies and dark, relentless rhythms. His love of rhythms that build into thunderous storms is obvious here, something he would continually revise throughout his later works. Not a great album if you're looking for pop highlights. But if you're an artist and need something to set the tone while you work, this might lead you to surprising discoveries. Or, if you want to travel somewhere mysterious and strange without having to leave the house, this is just the thing.

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Impressive

Peter Gabriel
So    (1986)
Comments: "So" stands next to U2's "The Joshua Tree" as one of the most artful, intelligent, groundbreaking, and spiritually exploratory albums in all of rock.
     There's never been a grander, more enthralling opening track than "Red Rain", with its apoca-cryptic descriptions of a crimsong torrent that could be bombs, acid rain, or brimstone. The singer casts off pretense in favor of intimacy and honesty, singing "I come to you, defenses down/ with the trust of a child". That sets the tone.
     Thus, the sexually-charged celebration of double-entendre that follows is quite a shock. He's opened with two extremes: the spiritual intimacy of love, and then the carnal carnival of lovemaking.
     While there is not so much an overarching theme to the album, each song does take you to a very different, interior place. "Don't Give Up", a soulful duet between Gabriel and Kate Bush, explores the despair of a man whose world is disintegrating, and the encouraging whispers of hope. Gabriel testifies that he has received many letters of thanks for the song, which has even prevented suicides. It's that strong.
      I could go on and on. "That Voice Again" explores the singer's desire to overcome his fears and take a step of faith into a risky relationship. "Mercy Street" explores the troubled heart of poet Anne Sexton, going beyond "Don't Give Up" to search for grace available even to those who have given in to despair.
     For all of these fears, failures, and burdens, "So" finds glorious resolution in a song that to this day remains one of the great love songs ever written. "In Your Eyes" may not be the most hip-shaking love song ever, but it is certainly a contender for purest, whole-hearted expression of love ever to conquer the charts, right alongside "Unchained Melody" and "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You". But Gabriel isn't satisfied with just a love letter... he spikes the punch with spiritual allegory. He's searched "the doorways of a thousand churches", is frustrated by "all his fruitless searches". "I see the light and the heat / oh I want to be that complete / I want to touch the light, the heat I see... in your eyes." Or is that "in Your eyes"? For me, this song has become one of those Life Songs, almost a daily prayer. And the fact that the finale is backed by primal rhythms suggests it is timeless, borderless, and boundless.

Outstanding tracks: "In Your Eyes", "Red Rain", "Big Time", "Mercy Street"

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Masterpiece

Peter Gabriel
Passion (1989)
Comments: Martin Scorcese's film The Last Temptation Of Christ gave Gabriel the perfect subject for his return to soundtrack music. As a result, we have something that is, arguably, better on its own than as a soundtrack... in fact, it might be better a more worthwhile experience than the film altogether.
     Passion is more than an hour of ambitious, complex fusions of "world music" (some from Egypt, Senegal, and Turkey) and Gabriel's own ominous synthesizers and vocals. It is music that grows on you with each listen, rhthms that become compelling, running with an urgency that suggests all of our various cultures are drumming about the same thing, and that the collective energy might just tear open the skies to let something divine come through.
     Other sequences move in such subdued, peaceful tones that the listener finds the relief needed after these frantic drum jams. Out of context, these might seem merely "mood music", but in the context of a meditation on the sufferings of Christ, they seem to make a lot of sense.      In fact, what makes this work actually worthy of its subject is Gabriel's refusal to let the grander themes break free of the earthy, dusty flavor of desert music. Christ, as portrayed in the film, aspires to God's divinity and communes with him in prayer, but also digs up handfuls of dust and asserts, "This is beautiful too. I honestly don't know which is more beautiful."

Outstanding tracks: The Feeling Begins, Zaar, Of These Hope, A Different Drum, Bread and Wine

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Masterpiece

Peter Gabriel
Shaking the Tree : Sixteen Golden Greats (1985)
Comments: For anyone interested in exploring Peter Gabriel's work, you could not ask for a better primer. "Shaking the Tree" not only compiles a truly great collection of singles. It brings them together into something resembling a cohesive, visionary work, exploring dark places, celebrating the fruit of passion and love, calling for revolution in a troubled world. There are a couple of wonderful additions as well: a joyful affirmation of women being delivered from oppression around the world ("Shaking the Tree") and an intimate, haunting revisitation of "Here Comes the Flood", with Gabriel at the piano. That song closes the parade of greats to great effect.
     Perhaps the most noticeable omission from the album is "In Your Eyes", the lovers' hymn from "So" that is clearly Gabriel's most beloved song. Perhaps that's why he left it off. Most people know it by heart already, and there are so many emotional peaks on this album already that including the song may well cause one's heart to burst.

Outstanding tracks: Just about all of them, but this is the only place to find the definitive version of "Here Comes the Flood"

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Masterpiece

Peter Gabriel
Us    (1992)
Comments: "Us" is disappointing in that it sounds, well, almost like a spoof of a Peter Gabriel album. It has the big anthemic opener, filled with world-music influences and the trademark thunderous drums... "Come Talk to Me." It has a big, brawny, brassy single about sex ("Steam", which could be called "Son of Sledgehammer"). It has intimate confessionals. It has the eastern-flavored instrumental. And it has the dark, edgy, techno-rock tangent ("Digging in the Dirt").
     What sets it apart, though, are Gabriel's surprisingly personal and direct lyrics. While the music sounds like it should accompany words about politics, world oppression, and freedom, Gabriel is singing about his own personal relationships breaking down and leaving him wasted, wretched, and grappling for a hold. (Gabriel went through a painful divorce the previous year.) "Digging in the Dirt" becomes an affirmation of therapy's usefulness in facing down personal demons. "Washing of the Water" is a mournful cry for spiritual cleansing. There is a story told here, one that should speak to most anyone who has had their heart broken. And, backed with such gorgeous power, the story is elevated to the lasting story of man and woman, something Gabriel clearly acknowledges in "Blood of Eden", a beautiful (if rather ponderous) duet with Sinead O'Connor. What almost spoils the trip is a psycho-sexual fairy tale "Kiss That Frog", as unabashed an innuendo as anyone would ever want to hear.

Outstanding tracks: "Digging in the Dirt", "Washing of the Water", "Secret World"

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Impressive


Peter Gabriel
Ovo    (2000)
Comments: OVO was written as a concept album to be presented theatrically in Britain's millenium celebrations. It might have been an interested multimedia presentation, but as an album it comes across as poorly-conceived, bland, preachy "world music." There's no one better at merging different cultural sounds than Gabriel, but this sounds like a project planned by a committee. The opening song introduces the framework of a new-myth story cycle in a hip-hop, rap style backed by Gabriel's unmistakeably ominous synthesizer distortions. This long, wordy exposition just isn't interesting. The lyrics are just loud and hammering, not artful, and the following blend of styles sounds more like politically-correct, make-every-nation-happy collages of styles, jumping from Irish fiddle tunes to Middle Eastern spiritualism to African tribal rhythms to big brass band fanfares. It's like someone holding a radio up to a microphone and changing stations in the name of world peace. Only a couple of tracks, "Father and Son" and "The Tower that Ate People", sound like the kind of thing Gabriel might feature on his own albums, but even there they'd probably be B-sides.

Outstanding tracks: "The Tower that Ate People"

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Flawed, but of some merit.