PETER GABRIEL 1 [AKA: CAR]

I never really got the Peter Gabriel Fuzz. His vocals were never brilliant, not as good as the Gentle Giant, Yes, Jethro Tull or King Crimson vocals. His microphone techniques are sometimes unbearable, giving an unclear vocal line. The production of his voice in the studio has never been very intelligent in my humble opinion. Throwing him out of Genesis can easily be seen as a rightful act to interfere with his always growing role in the live performances of early Genesis. But, I'm not to judging on him, because he has also wrote great lyrics for songs like "The Giant Hogweed" and "Get em out by Friday". I bought this record for just 1 euro at my local second hand vinyl store to give it one more try.

The production of the complete record is awful. It fall right between the seventies and the eighties and one can hear the confusion around how to produce a record in this hard times for progressive musicians. The second thing that took my attention was the complete lack of progressive elements. I really disliked the dry parts of Moribund the Burgermeister, but some other parts are acceptable. Salisbury Hill is a nice 100% pop song, catchy and modern. Modern Love is bit more tasteless and has that very uncomfortable radio-friendly vibe of 'classic rock' radio-stations. Till now still not a interesting note is played. Excuse me starts of with classic vocal harmonies, but not sung very accurate. The rest of the song is an awfull country banjo song I wont spent any words on. Humdrum is a bit better, but still very unasked for. On side two nothing seems to change. Another poppy song 'Slowburn', a bluesy Waiting for the big one with (I must say!) some nice riffs but with a total strange vibe and lyrics sung out of tune. Simply the wrong pitch. It does make the blues song feel miserable. The ending is however beautiful, with a lot of melodic themes we've missed so far. And by the way... where is Fripp? Did he really work on this? Down the Dolce Vita is played with an orchestra. After the intro the radiofriendlyness rises to full pophit-potential. The parts with the orchestra make this song worthwhile, but not my taste. Some other parts like the click-clack sounds are very messy. The closing track Here comes the Flood is a bit better then the other songs of the album. You might call this symphonic rock, it's the best song of the album.

Now... before I started writing this review (accompanied by the record playing while I write about the songs) I intended to give this two stars... but now I must say this really not my taste. It has no progressive elements whatsoever and it is recorded messy. Yes.. sorry folks... this is not for collectors... this is for completionists in my humble opinion. One star. It still might appeal to Genesis fans and people who like radio friendly classic rock.