Revisited - Peter Gabriel > Reviews > The Art of Recycling with extra information

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Average
Value for Money

Advantages:	Almost the first two albums on one disk
Disadvantages:	Disjointed running order and missing tracks

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Although I currently seem to be writing about Peter Gabriel a lot I wasn't going to write about this release. The reason being is that it is simply a compilation of Gabriel's first two albums meant to break him in the American market, similar to Robbie Williams "The Ego Has Landed" scenario. As I've reviewed the first two albums this would be a pointless exercise. Then I thought I could give a brief description of the album and use that as a springboard to write a little more about the man. So his is how the op will be structured. Hope that I don't get too many complaints about it being in the wrong category and all that, but I will tell you all you need to know about the album and a bit more.

First this album...

Basically a fifteen track compilation of Peter's first album , chosen seemingly at random and therefore lacking the continuity of the actual albums, also it was given a title so that was not in the spirit of things at all. Comments about the tracks , where appropriate can be found in my reviews of the first two Gabriel albums. The track listing is as follows:

1. On the Air
2. Modern Love
3. Indigo
4. Solsbury Hill
5. Perspective
6. Waiting for the Big One
7. Animal Magic
8. Humdrum
9. D.I.Y.
10. Mother of Violence
11. Slowburn
12. Exposure
13. Moribund the Burgermeister
14. Flotsam and Jetsam
15. Here Comes the Flood

The missing tracks are "Excuse Me" and "Down the Dolce Vita" from the first album and "A Wonderful Day In A One Way World",. "White Shadow", and "Home Sweet Home" from the second album. The exclusion of the last track is a bit of an aberration, but there could be arguments for including all of the tracks. The problem with this album is that even if you do buy it , you would want to get hold of the missing tracks, and also the running order on the first two albums is far more natural than on this compilation. So the content is fine, it's the order and omissions that are the main bones of contention here. It's a WEA release and is available from Amazon for 12.99 GBP, but I would recommend buying the two single albums, but if you see this in a bargain bin , and have not got the first two albums it could be a reasonable investment.

Right now a little more information about Peter Gabriel, this is only the odd snippet but hopefully may whet your appetite to try and investigate his work further.

Peter Gabriel left a very successful Genesis in the mid seventies to pursue a very successful solo career. He produce four eponymous studio albums (the fourth was named "Security" for the American market for some reason) before bringing the first phase of his recording career to a close with "Plays Live" a live double album. The third, fourth and live albums were also released in German language versions, so I assume he must be/ have been big in Germany. Around this time he released an instrumental album of recycled material for the soundtrack of the fiilm "Birdy".

He then became involved with the WOMAD (World of Music and Dance) project and set up the Real World recording complex. Whilst this was critically successful , Gabrile almost went bankrupt , but was saved when he front Genesis for a one off fund raising concert.

This coincided with the release of "So" which was his major commercial breakthrough which featured the single "Sledgehammer" a spin off from a shelved project to do a covers album of Soul Classics, although this was an original song.

Since then he has release "Us", "Secret World Live", "Ovo" and "Ovo - The Millenium Show". The last album was commisioned for a concert performed within the Millenium Dome, so some good came of this.

As well the album releases he also has produced two multimedia CDs "Eve" and XPLORA1 which basically allowed you to explore PGs "Real World" and it was a great piece of software, featuring videos from the "Us" album. Unfortunately I've not been able to get it to run on my PC with Windows Millenium on. The software is at home, I'm at work so I'll update this with the name when I get home.

He is also a very active supporter of Amnesty International and has performed at many benefit concerts to support their cause, as well as sponsoring a program to get cameras out to oppressed parts of the world so that we could be informed visually of what is happening under various repressive regimes throughout the world.

I know this second bit is not specificallty to do with the album , but , as I say may whet your appetite to know more.

Websites:

http://realworld.co.uk

http://www.petergabriel.com/

http://www.amnesty.org/