Peter Gabriel is one of the best musicians of our time. He was one of the founding members of Genesis in 1965 (a band that continues to exist and included and includes such names such as Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Tony Banks), and during his solo career, he nabbed 20 Grammy nominations (and 6 wins). His song, “In Your Eyes,” is one of the most frequently covered songs in the genre, and most recently, he was simultaneously nominated for a Grammy and an Oscar for his song “Down to Earth,” off of the WALL-E soundtrack.
Peter Gabriel also hasn’t released a new album in seven years. Until this past Tuesday, when he released “Scratch My Back,” an orchestral album of covers.
Wait. This is one of the greatest living songwriters out there. And his most recent album, his first album in almost an entire decade…is an album of COVERS??
To give Peter Gabriel credit, he did make these songs his own. Most of them bare very little resemblance to any of the originals. Unfortunately, this is not always a good thing.
“Scratch My Back” suffers from a similar issue that Celtic Woman’s latest album suffers from, in that every single song sounds exactly the same. They are all slow, heavily produced, and very pretty. But an entire album of this tone is not necessarily the greatest thing to come from a pop-rock star capable of creating incredibly upbeat, fun, and memorable tracks.
The album begins with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes.” Unlike Bowie’s engaging original, Peter Gabriel’s version is so slow that my father, who was listening to the album with me, suggested that “maybe [Peter Gabriel] has a vendetta against Valium, and this is his way of cornering the market.”
The next track is a cover of Paul Simon’s “The Boy In The Bubble.” I do have to give Peter Gabriel some credit here- he takes a fun dance-worthy song with incredibly serious lyrics and brings the serious back to the lyrics. It’s insightful, and an interesting interpretation. It’s just not particularly fun to listen to.
Luckily, the album does get a bit better with track three, a cover of Elbow’s “Mirrorball.” The song is still slow and heavy on the strings, but it’s a bit faster and definitely more melodic. Unfortunately, his cover of Bon Iver’s “Flume” is right back to being laborious and torturous to listen to.
The idea of doing an entire album of strings isn’t that horrible an idea. The album is certainly intriguing, and I applaud Peter Gabriel for giving it a try. It just isn’t his best work, and it certainly isn’t worth the seven-year wait. Better luck next time. Grade: B-
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