PETER GABRIEL 2 [AKA: SCRATCH]

When this album appeared, I didn't want to be Peter Gabriel anymore.

PG clearly sounds like a man who's desperately running out of good ideas. Some of his new songs are virtually tuneless and plainly annoying, e.g. "DIY", "Animal Magic", "Perspective". (In their shoutiness and in the way they're structured, both "Animal Magic" and "Perspective" seem to show the influence of British 'pub rockers' such as Graham Parker, but they're far less memorable than "Don't Ask Me Questions" or other Parker classics.) To my ears, "On the Air", the opening number, sounds much too shrill and harsh. (Fortunately, it would appear in a far more convincing version a few years later, on PLAYS LIVE, where Gabriel finally realises its potential as one of his 'screamers'.) On other tracks ("Indigo", "Flotsam and Jetsam") Gabriel just seems tired. "Exposure" would be performed more powerfully by Terre Roche, on Robert Fripp's excellent solo album bearing the same title. This leaves us with just a few songs that pass muster. The reggae-pastiche of "A Wonderful Day in a Wonderful World" reminds me of the comic German rocker Udo Lindenberg, particularly the way Peter sings: 'My name is Einstein, did you know time is a curve?' "Mother of Violence" is a delicate ballad, beautifully accompanied on piano and acoustic guitar. And "Home Sweet Home", finally, is a great way to finish a mediocre album: a sad ballad in which Gabriel treats us to one of those cynical narratives that were his speciality in Genesis days. (Strangely enough, it's yet another satire aimed at the buying and selling of real estate, just like "Get 'Em Out By Friday"!)

All in all, it seemed obvious that Gabriel urgently needed a change. And change he did.

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