Peter+gabriel

Generally regarded as Peter Gabriel's finest record, his third eponymous album finds him coming into his own, crafting an album that's artier, stronger, more song-oriented than before. Consider its ominous opener, the controlled menace of "Intruder." He's never found such a scary sound, yet it's a sexy scare, one that is undeniably alluring, and he keeps this going throughout the record. For an album so popular, it's remarkably bleak, chilly, and dark – even radio favorites like "I Don't Remember" and "Games Without Frontiers" are hardly cheerful, spiked with paranoia and suspicion, insulated in introspection.

Peter Gabriel tells why he left Genesis in "Solsbury Hill," the key track on his 1977 solo debut. Majestically opening with an acoustic guitar, the song finds Gabriel's talents gelling, as the words and music feed off each other, turning into true poetry. It stands out dramatically on this record, not because the music doesn't work, but because it brilliantly illustrates why Gabriel had to fly on his own. Though this is undeniably the work of the same man behind The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, he's turned his artiness inward, making his music coiled, dense, vibrant. There is still some excess, naturally, yet it's the sound of a musician unleashed, finally able to bend the rules as he wishes.

Security (IV) – which was titled Peter Gabriel everywhere outside of the U.S. – continues where the third Gabriel album left off, sharing some of the same dense production and sense of cohesion, yet lightening the atmosphere and expanding the sonic palette somewhat. The gloom that permeates the third album has been alleviated and while this is still decidedly somber and serious music, it has a brighter feel, partially derived from Gabriel's dabbling in African and Latin rhythms. These are generally used as tonal coloring, enhancing the synthesizers that form the basic musical bed of the record, since much of this is mood music (for want of a better word).

Peter Gabriel's first foray into soundtracks was for Alan Parker's contemplative film Birdy and is a successful companion piece, providing a backdrop that is moody and evocative. Nearly half of the album's dozen tracks incorporate threads from material found on Gabriel's 1982 Security set, including "Close Up," which makes use of keyboard passages from "Family Snapshot," and "The Heat," which is a reworking of "The Rhythm of the Heat" and builds to a frenzied percussive crescendo. Material specially written for this project includes the murky opening track, "At Night," the tribal "Floating Dogs," and "Slow Marimbas," a track that would become part of future live performances. The fact that Birdy comprises all instrumentals means that listeners whose familiarity with Gabriel is limited to "Sledgehammer" and "In Your Eyes" will be largely disappointed. However, its meditative nature makes it fine, reflective listening for the more adventurous.

OVO is the soundtrack to the Millennium Dome Show in London that was composed by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was his eleventh album overall. It was released on 12 June 2000 and features guest vocals by Neneh Cherry, Rasco, Richie Havens, Elizabeth Fraser, and Paul Buchanan (of The Blue Nile). Two versions of the album were released, a standard version which was sold in stores and a limited edition deluxe version, which was sold only at the Millennium Dome and petergabriel.com. The deluxe version which was discontinued after 2000, includes a comic book telling the OVO story and a bonus disc with the track, "The Story of OVO".

Rated PG is a compilation album of songs for film soundtracks by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. The track selection spans over 30 years of music created for the individual films, with Walk Through the Fire being the earliest from 1984 and Everybird being the most recent from 2017…