PETER GABRIEL 1 [AKA: CAR]

Wow, Peter was really struggling here. Mumbled vocals, a complete mish mash of styles all thrown in, little or no hooks, messy production. Okay I'm going over the top a bit, this album is probably worth 2.5 stars, but I've given it 2 because I don't have the heart to give it a 'Good but not essential' three stars.

Gabriel's first two albums, which he didn't even bother to give titles to, find him a bit lost, as he seems to be jumping from style to style, writing sloppy songs, sloppy production and the songs are trying to pass on their novelty value or experimental value, rather than on strong songwriting ability. Moribund the Burgemeister will be quite enjoyable for fans of experimental music, as it sounds like a bizarre out-take from the Genesis double album 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' with bizarre vocals, but no strong hooks, right? Solsbury Hill is probably the best song. It was a hit, somehow, but I can't see why, it's not particularly catchy but the best here. The remaining tracks are all interesting. 'Slowburn' might be a dig at AOR bands like Styx, there are a few lampoon Styx backing vocals, probably the best of the rest of the songs, with the possible exception of 'Here comes the flood', an epic ballad that closes the album. 'Down the Dolce Vita' is a heavily orchestrated disco song, and the other songs are all fairly enjoyable, though without the lyrics sheet it's a bit hard to understand some of the lyrics, one song, 'Waiting for the big one', is total mumbling. Now no-one needs a lyric sheet to understand the 'Melt' album (actually that was another untitled album), so which is the better album?