Peter Gabriel - So
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Artist: Peter GabrielEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2002-05-07
Music Label: Geffen Records
Soundtracks:
- Red Rain
- Sledgehammer
- Don't Give Up
- That Voice Again
- In Your Eyes
- Mercy Street
- Big Time
- We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
- This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)
Free Music Notes for So
Free Music Review: SO wonderful
Hit: 5 Stars
Many musicians release some sort of experimental album at some point in their career. For Peter Gabriel, every album is an experiment. Usually musicians experiment by deviating from the norm; however, on Gabriel's fifth experiment, SO, the ex-Genesis frontman does the exact opposite. Gabriel, beloved for always doing something different, decided on this album to play it safe - and for Gabriel, that is an experiment. Previously he was a sort of cult performer, but on SO, Gabriel finally made it into the spotlight. Big time. SO was an immense success, peaking at number one on the Billboard Top 100, receiving overwhelmingly-positive reviews (in 2003, So placed 187th on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time), and resulting in a sold-out tour.
Which brings us to one nagging term: "sellout".
Though most who loved Peter Gabriel's first four albums loved SO as well, there are still many who call SO Gabriel's sellout album. To me, that's just foolishness. Peter Gabriel has never "sold out" and I have no doubt that he never will. It's clear that on SO he was trying to go in a more mainstream direction, but that's probably the biggest experiment Gabriel has ever undertaken, save for his subsequent release, PASSION. One popular theory amongst Gabriel fans is that the album's title, SO, is in fact an acronym for "Sell Out" (hence the uppercase capital "S" and the lowercase italicized "o"). I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was.
SO does sound very different from Gabriel's earlier albums (though then again, none of those sounded alike either). If anything, it resembles Gabriel's third self-titled release, nicknamed MELT. The thing that really separates those two - other than an obviously more commercial sound on SO - is a feeling of warmth on that album, unlike the harsh, gritty darkness of MELT. Perhaps that's why listeners found SO so charming.
What does SO have to offer? Well, a lot. For one thing, there's the atmospheric opening, "Red Rain", one of Gabriel's finest tracks. Like many of the tracks on the album, it's dominated by ethereal guitar from David Rhodes and heavenly synthesizers, courtesy of Gabriel himself. Then there's one of the biggest hits of 1980s (which also spawned what may be the best music video in history), "Sledgehammer," inspired by the motown music Gabriel listened to as a child. With its pounding, industrial percussion, playful bass (by Gabriel's exclusive bass man, Tony Levin) and clever, sexually suggestive lyrics, it's no surprise that "Sledgehammer" was a hit. After letting his silly side out, Gabriel tries to inspire with "Don't Give Up", a nice song made great by heavenly vocals from another popular 80s musician, Kate Bush.
The subsequent track, "That Voice Again", is my personal favorite song from this album. It features some excellent drumming from Manu Katche, an immensely-talented drummer who has also played with artists like Sting, along with misty guitars, delightful synthesizers, and fine lyrics hit home by Gabriel's pained singing. Like the best tracks on SO, "That Voice Again" manages to be fun, moody, uplifting, powerful, warm, and inspirational, all at once.
Gabriel winds down a little for the dreamy, powerful "Mercy Street", a song inspired by and written about Anne Sexton, an American mental patient who relieved her depression through writing. As on his previous albums, Gabriel proves that he knows when to lighten up by whipping out "Big Time", a silly but fun track which also spawned an innovative music video. "Big Time" features heavy drumming from Stewart Copeland, the former drummer of The Police, as well as some awesome CMI by Simon Clark. "We Do What We're Told (Miligram's 37)" is about the experiments of Yale professor Stanley Milgram. Milgram would have his subjects administer shocks to actors, who would scream in pain as the shocks became more and more horrible. Milgram observed that his subjects would do what he told them to do, despite the immense pain they appeared to be inflicting on the actors. He follows that rather cold song with "This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds)", a tensely surreal tune.
The album closes with one of Gabriel's most famous songs, "In Your Eyes". Most people are familiar with the song from its usage in Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy masterpiece ... SAY ANYTHING, where the song was used in what has become one of the most famous scenes in movie history. It's one of Gabriel's warmest and most romantic compositions, and also one of his best. On the original LP version of SO, "We Do What We're Told" closed out the album. That's a fine way to end it, but it's also a rather cold way to end such a warm album. When the album was re-released remastered on CD in 2002, Gabriel placed "In Your Eyes" at the end of the album as he originally intended. Now that is the way to end it!
So - how does SO rank among the many other brilliant works of Peter Gabriel? Well, it ranks quite highly, actually. It's one of the pinnacles of Gabriel's career, though whether it truly is the peak or not is hard to say. After all, how can one compare Gabriel's albums when they are all so vastly different? Certainly, though, SO is one of the finest Gabriel masterpieces. This is fun, well-crafted, emotional music. SO is SO wonderful.
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