AND I'LL SCRATCH YOURS

Now, in return, a majority of the musicians who were symphonically "covered" in PG's 2010 "Scratch My Back", (Neil Young, Bowie, The Radioheads, are missing), "cover-up" some Peter Gabriel's own pen-written songs in this "And I'll Scratch Yours" 2013 album. It should have been a real thrill, considering PG has some amazing "jewels", the ones we all mostly know and like, and the personal favorites (if you follow PG). And yet, the picks are quiet obvious, as to "cover" only the well known songs or to put it lightly, his "greatest hits' (except Eno's "Mother of Violence" and Stephin Merritt's "Not One of Us"). That, I suppose, has a reason, and that is exactly what turns this V.A. project, quiet predictable,as far as song-writing goes. Some great performances, some personal ones, an a couple of uninspired "tributes". What is great will grab you, what is personal is more towards the experimental side, and the couple of "tributes" are at least well studio-recorded and performed, as the usually excellent PG's standards. This kind of "Various Artists" albums, for being various, by rule, will be hard to be considered "essential" (if the world ends tomorrow). By choice, I'm already a follower of some musicians of the project, so it's like a "bonus" for my personal collection, if not known, I look out for the music that was unknown at the moment of listening and check it out, and the worst, if it happens with what I don't like, will be to feel compensated with what is worth listening to. So "essential' as such it is not. Worth listening to some very inspired re-visions, of his already, great songs, by some very diverse music-genre musicians, is well worth the time. ***3.5 PA stars.