PETER GABRIEL 1 [AKA: CAR]

First album after leaving Genesis, "Peter Gabriel" was released in 1977, the year of punk and, with great candor he proposed the many (often confusing) art-rock, theatrical, baroque ideas, in a word: progressive ideas of our darling.

First symphonic song, "Moribund The Burgermeister" (4:18) on a music hall rhythm, pompous baroque arrangements, which arrive at the grotesque, alternating dramatic and theatrical mood with the subtle and demented one. Excessive track in everything: the exact opposite of punk. Very overproduced, polypoid. But I like it. Surely it's very creative. Rating 8. Second pop song, "Solsbury Hill" (4:21): catchy melody, acoustic beginning with the guitar (Fripp?), simple composition. He will become his warhorse in concert, to lighten up the most dramatic songs. Rating 7,5.

"Modern Love" (3:38) has a good hard riff on the guitar, sustained rhythm, singing screamed scratchy and gritty. Production is not the best. Rating 7+. "Excuse Me" (3:20) is a funny, lazy joke. Vaudeville, it's a retro, pre-war, swing song that Paul McCartney could have written. Rating 7. Very well arranged, it remains a disorienting episode. The listener begins to wonder: where does Gabriel want to go? He wants to get serious, or he wants to produce catchy retro songs (so far it's two out of four)?

Last song of side A, "Humdrum" (3:26) is a progressive track in its own way, given its changes in rhythm, arrangements and atmosphere. It looks like a mazurka, at first, then it becomes orchestral, remaining melodic. Some problem with the production: the drums sound bad. Rating: 8. Again Gabriel brings great creativity to the album: so far we have listened to 5 very different songs from one another. All very cutesy, except the third one, the only one played in a serious way (but also the least convincing one).

Side B opens with "Slowburn" (4:37): has the same sound as "Modern Love" but differs in the refinement of the arrangements and atmospheres, which are perhaps those that most of all recall Genesis. Melodic orchestral rock song with enthralling moments and refined sounds, in some moments it does not deepen the pathos because it gets carried away by instrumental ramblings. This song has merits and defects of the progressive. Rating 7,5/8. "Waiting For The Big One" (7:14), the longer song, it brings back to the retro atmosphere of "Excuse Me", but fortunately the piece dampens the ironic vein and turns towards jazz. Pretentious song, it influences the second side too much. Gabriel is now clear that he alternates three types of songs: the progressive symphonic ones, the catchy pop ones and the retro theatrical ones of variety shows, such as cabaret, like this one. Made well, but too emphatic. It's a song best suited to the voice of a soulful colored singer, like Nina Simone or Dina Washington. It's a soubrette song. Rating 7+.

"Down The Dolce Vita" (4:42), with The London Symphony Orchestra (8), it's as pompous as the opening song. We hear Tony Levin's work on bass, which will remain a collaborator for a long time. You can also hear Gabriel's desperate singing, which will remain his trademark in the future, on a more ethnic and soft instrumental background. The arrangement is really too heavy, swollen. The track, however, is good, even if, like "Slowburn", it's lost a bit in the instrumental ramblings, including a percussive one that anticipates "San Jacinto". Rating 7,5. The finale is mixed with the last song, the masterpiece of the record: "Here Comes The Flood (5:56)". Here Gabriel is finally serious, and arranges with due measure a traditional melodic great work, sometimes epic and dramatic, with a strophe-refrain structure. Rating 8,5.

Very creative album, varied in musical styles, between progressive, retro pop songs, catchy melodic songs. He does not invent anything, and indeed challenges punk with arrangements that are sometimes too pompous. But the musical writing is good, the fantasy as well, the songs always pleasant without difficulty.

Medium quality of the songs: 7,64. Rating: 8+. Four Stars.