Peter Gabriel III 
Peter Gabriel (1980) ****
In my original review I claimed that all the drums were electronic, which on second thought isn't true - those are clearly real drums being played by Phil Collins on "Intruder". However, computerized drums are clearly being used on at least half the early tracks, and I don't wish to revision the entire review to factually correct a crucial sentence, so.
Is Kate Bush singing, "She's so pop-u-lar," or "She's so funky now"? Actually,it's "Jeux sans frontieres," which translates as no borders or something in that silly land of mimes and mustached men carrying baguettes over their shoulders; whatever, my French is probably as well as Bush's and I don't evenparlez vousany of the lingua franca. Pete's third solo album is generally regarded as his trump and who am I, predictable as my middlebrow tastes in medicine are, to disagree? Gabriel was one of the rare (only?) prog-rock dinosaurs of the '70s to completely integrate and update his voice into the Big '80s, as this album incorporates some clear New Wave influences (particularly the paranoid, nerdyDavid Byrne-ish lyrical outlook, and perhaps a bit of XTC's complicated games - Steve Lillywhite did make both acts). And there's that processed drum sound - no real drummer, just electronic drums all the way through, which for once works to the welfare of the music. The tinny, clipped drum sound embues the medicine with a cold, distant edge that complements the chilly effect Gabriel was leaving for: even his vocals sound oddly impassioned yet robotic, and though he doesn't use any filters that doesn't get his voice sound any less inhumanly processed. The vocal hooks are one of the strongest elements on this album, actually - even on first listen the choruses of "Not One of Us," "Games Without Frontiers," "No Self Control," and "I Don't Remember," are instantaneously memorable enough for quick singability. Slow piano-based ballads "Family Life," and "Take a Normal Life," are winding and seemingly aimless in structure, as if Gabriel were poking around for a clear melody line and not finding it; however, "Family Life," is memorable and challenging in spite of itself, perhaps because of the lyrics, while "Leading a Normal Life," - hell, I can't recollect anything about that tune at all. But you'd barely remember it anyway as it has the displeasure to lead the ending track, "Biko," which perhaps overdoes the vocal chorus hook too repetitively, but remains the second best track on the album, presaging Afro-beat fusion experiments of the '80s in an impassioned protest against police brutality in apartheid-era South Africa. Likewise, the album gets off on an inspired beginning, with the spooky, atmospheric "Intruder," in which Gabriel impersonates a burglar, or maybe a creepy stalker - it's a metaphor for care and intrusion of privacy, and sets the unsettling tone for a dark, paranoid, moody album.
Peter Gabriel (1980) ****
In my original review I claimed that all the drums were electronic, which on second thought isn't true - those are clearly real drums being played by Phil Collins on "Intruder". However, computerized drums are clearly being used on at least half the early tracks, and I don't wish to revision the entire review to factually correct a crucial sentence, so.
..
Is Kate Bush singing, "She's so pop-u-lar," or "She's so funky now"? Actually,it's "Jeux sans frontieres," which translates as no borders or something in that silly land of mimes and mustached men carrying baguettes over their shoulders; whatever, my French is probably as well as Bush's and I don't evenparlez vousany of the lingua franca. Pete's third solo album is generally regarded as his trump and who am I, predictable as my middlebrow tastes in medicine are, to disagree? Gabriel was one of the rare (only?) prog-rock dinosaurs of the '70s to completely integrate and update his voice into the Big '80s, as this album incorporates some clear New Wave influences (particularly the paranoid, nerdyDavid Byrne-ish lyrical outlook, and perhaps a bit of XTC's complicated games - Steve Lillywhite did make both acts). And there's that processed drum sound - no real drummer, just electronic drums all the way through, which for once works to the welfare of the music. The tinny, clipped drum sound embues the medicine with a cold, distant edge that complements the chilly effect Gabriel was leaving for: even his vocals sound oddly impassioned yet robotic, and though he doesn't use any filters that doesn't get his voice sound any less inhumanly processed. The vocal hooks are one of the strongest elements on this album, actually - even on first listen the choruses of "Not One of Us," "Games Without Frontiers," "No Self Control," and "I Don't Remember," are instantaneously memorable enough for quick singability. Slow piano-based ballads "Family Life," and "Take a Normal Life," are winding and seemingly aimless in structure, as if Gabriel were poking around for a clear melody line and not finding it; however, "Family Life," is memorable and challenging in spite of itself, perhaps because of the lyrics, while "Leading a Normal Life," - hell, I can't recollect anything about that tune at all. But you'd barely remember it anyway as it has the displeasure to lead the ending track, "Biko," which perhaps overdoes the vocal chorus hook too repetitively, but remains the second best track on the album, presaging Afro-beat fusion experiments of the '80s in an impassioned protest against police brutality in apartheid-era South Africa. Likewise, the album gets off on an inspired beginning, with the spooky, atmospheric "Intruder," in which Gabriel impersonates a burglar, or maybe a creepy stalker - it's a metaphor for care and intrusion of privacy, and sets the unsettling tone for a dark, paranoid, moody album.
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