PETER GABRIEL 4 [AKA: MASK, AKA: SECURITY]

An album I worshipped when it came out and which received daily spins on my turntable, it slowly lost its lustre and now rarely receives much attention. Occasionally, I get in a Tony Levin mood or want to try to recapture the amazing experience of listening to "The Rhythm of the Heat," "Lay Your Hands on Me," or "San Jacinto" for the first time, but otherwise, the rest of the album has been relegated to things passé and out of date. The genius of incorporating the Ekome Dancers, Tony's ChapmanStick magic, as well as all of the samples funneled through his Fairlight CMI are now overshadowed by the overly-compressed and overly-clean sound as well as the over-familiarity with the song's more pop-oriented songs ("Shock the Monkey," "Kiss of Life," "I have the Touch," and the tribute to then-imprisoned Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, "Wallflower"). Impressive at the time; technologically dated now. Still, a nice step toward's Peter's "big" sound with his next album, "So"--and fun stuff to experience live in the concert hall.