PETER GABRIEL 1 [AKA: CAR]

This is the first album by Peter Gabriel. It is not extremely progressive. There are omnipresent aggressive rock guitars. "Moribund The Burgermeister" still has some "Lamb lies down on Broadway" influences, especially the miscellaneous original vocal expressions provided by Gabriel himself. The acoustic "Solsbury Hill" was a huge hit, which I personally find only good; it has a bit the style of Kansas' "Dust in the wind". "Modern Love" is a more ordinary and conventional almost hard rock track a la The Who, full of straightforward aggressive electric guitars and background organ. The intro of "Excuse me" has exuberant retro lead & backing vocals, a bit like the Van Halen's "Happy trails" track; the track itself, full of banjo and acoustic string instruments, has a slight Beatles-esque style. "Humdrum" is a really good track: it is very subtle, fluid and progressive: Larry Fast expands his keyboards in the end, forming an impressive floating texture. Speaking of keyboards, Larry Fast does not sound very much futuristic nor electronic, as he used to do on his Synergy's records: he is rather down to Earth here, often playing accessible piano parts a la Supertramp, like on "Slowburn", which by the way also contains an electric guitar solo a la Supertramp. There is even a bluesy song: "Waiting for the big one": cabaret piano and bluesy electric guitars are played through a slow rhythm; the end seems to contain Gospel chants. "Down the dolce vita" has some very good participating orchestral arrangements: there is an interesting use of simultaneous symphonic orchestra and rock/hard rock elements. The last track, "Here comes the flood", is an EXCELLENT song: it slowly starts with delicate & subtle acoustic guitars and piano textures; then Gabriel sings loudly, producing a moving slow rock ballad.