After three eponymous discs noteworthy for their thematic richness and musical experimentation, Peter Gabriel yielded to conventional wisdom by actually titling this 1982 successor. In every other respect, however, Security was another stride beyond the progressive rock terrain Gabriel had explored from Genesis forward. Most crucially, he goes deeper into the heart of world music, and further investigates the African sources first invoked on the prior album's magisterial track, "Biko." …
25 years ago, Peter Gabriel unleashed one of the defining albums of the ’80s, the quintuple-platinum-selling SO. The album contains hits like “Sledge Hammer,” which holds the record for the most played video on MTV, the poignant Kate Bush vehicle “Don’t Give Up,” and “In Your Eyes,” familiar to many for it’s iconic placement in the movie Say Anything. This limited edition deluxe box set comprises the remastered So album, the 2CD Live in Athens 1987 album, and a So DNA CD – which gives a unique insight into the writing and recording of So, experienced via a track by track evolutionary process leading you from the early moments when rhythms, melodies and lyrical ideas were discovered through the various stages of song development and recording. Also included are two previously unreleased DVD’s : Live in Athens 1987, directed by Michael Chapman, with executive producer Martin Scorsese.
Peter Gabriel s Scratch My Back album project is the first part of a series of song exchanges in which Gabriel and other leading artists reinterpret each other s songs. To help craft his recording of the album s eclectic array of cult favorites and classic tracks, Gabriel enlisted former Durutti Column member John Metcalfe, composer, arranger and the expertise of producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd s The Wall, Lou Reed s Berlin ) and engineer, mixer and producer Tchad Blake (Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Tom Waits)…
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…
PLAYS LIVE is the sound of a man finally freeing himself definitively from the shackles that had bound him for years. Admittedly those shackles, being front man for Genesis, one of the most fascinating and consistently creative prog-rock bands of the early '70s, were hardly severe. But they were a constraint nonetheless. (How often could Peter take some fan screaming "Suppers Ready" when trying to debut new material?) Finally, with a substantial body of solo material (four albums, three of them titled PETER GABRIEL), Gabriel was ready to put the ghost of Genesis to rest…
The pairing sounds ideal — the former front man of Genesis, as produced by the leading light of King Crimson. Unfortunately, Peter Gabriel's second album (like his first, eponymous) fails to meet those grandiose expectations, even though it seems to at first. "On the Air" and "D.I.Y." are stunning slices of modern rock circa 1978, bubbling with synths, insistent rhythms, and polished processed guitars, all enclosed in a streamlined production that nevertheless sounds as large as a stadium…