Thread: Week Six Album Review: Peter Gabriel ...Scratch My Back

Here Is The Sixth Album Review




Here's the link
Peter_Gabriel-Scratch_My_Back-2010-DOH.rar

Peter_Gabriel-Scratch_My_Back-2010-DOH.rar

Happy reviewing of this one!

I have always loved “Heroes” by David Bowie…………but, this was the first time I have ever been able to hear the lyrics fully.......What a great surprise and a true insight into the song . This is where I feel a cover version really shows its class , when it can take a great song and give it a new dimension and it is for sure Peter can do this.
Paul Simon’s boy in the bubble tells us about the instant three minute world created by the media and is really an media coverage capture in a song but with Peter you can hear the running of the film through the gate of the projector you are running to avoid the bomb in the baby carriage because its so real you could be under threat.
Mirrorball I am less familiar worth but there is still that wonderful sense of drama that Peter can bring to his music , to me he is not rock and roll , rock or roll he is drama and presence .
To gamble you latest release on other people’s work is brave thing to do , but Peter has never been anything but brave......to walk out on Genesis when to quote Salisbury Hill” All my friends thought I was a nut “ was perhaps to a lesser person the end of the assent but to Peter Genesis were just the foothills of the assent.
As the album goes on you realize that Peter can take other peoples work and rewrite it in a way which brings out more of what is there.
I have seen Peter twice in my life , once on stage and that was an unforgettable piece of music and theatre and once by act of trespass...................In my early days I was a student at the University Of Bath.....One Saturday I went for a walk around and out of the grounds of the Campus and beyond ( Hey I was wandering around on Salisbury Hill !) I wandered into a posh garden and in it was a house.
My friends and I were just trying to leave when a voice asked "what are you doing here ?” “ We took a wrong turn “ We said.....................The stranger looked at us and said “Well guys , so did I .....would you say leaving Genesis was a wrong move ? Especially if you used to be Peter Garbriel the lead singer !” We looked hard and it was!!!! I have never been so stunned We chatted for over an hour about life , his decision and Genesis and things and the left ................What an afternoon.............never forgot it!
On with the album, each track shows the same skill.....Peter has a skill of feeling a song and managing to touch one of its fundamental resonances and return a harmony .

Tremendous album ....loved it all .....will buy a copy.

I am marking this thread.

Sending this back to the top

Don't give up on me guys.

Doing my homework tomorrow.

I really did try to set aside my anti-cover bias. It had to work to an extent, as 7 of these tracks I was not even familiar with. Those are Mirrorbal, Flume, The Power Of The Heart, The Book Of Love, Apres Moi, Philadelphia and Street Spirit. I did not look to see the origination of these until after I had listened and formed an opinion. Of those I thought The Power Of The Heart was very good and was surprised to see it was a Lou Reed track. Flume was ok and the others I did not care for at all. Four of the original artists here I have never heard. Those are Elbow, Bon Iver, Magnetic Fields and Regina Spektor. My point is, I could not have been influenced by the original version of these songs. Those 2 that I mentioned are the only tracks I liked on here. I think it was the lack of any bass or percussion that left me wanting. I did like most of the strings when used and I do like Peters voice. Just too laid back for me. Of the tracks that I did know the original, Paul Simons The Boy In The Bubble was probably the best and Arcade Fires My Body is A Cage definitely the worst. This came out to a 1.4 on my 1 to 3 scale and I would not purchase it.

We will change the album to number seven over the weekend , so if you want to leave a review.....better do it soon!