So, like, Peter Gabriel is some Bri’ish musician that knows how to sing, was once in a band, made some albums, wrote and composed soundtracks for some movies (like good artists do) and just sort of fucked-off of the public mainstream. He is now an old fart that occasionally makes a few songs with, like, 25 other variations of said songs. But we are not going to talk about what he is and does now, instead we’re going to talk about what he did in the past because, deep down, we all like to get ourselves stuck in the past.

At some point during the 70’s, when Gabriel, instead of being and old fart like he is nowadays, he was just a young, regular fart, that used to play in a band, and that band was Genesis. It was comprised of Peter Gabriel (who was the lead singer), Tony Banks (Keyboard masher, drum fucker and guitar god), Mike Rutherford (who wrote songs and shit, masterclass in slapping bass and who would sing sometimes), Phil Collins ( another drum fucker, he also wrote shit about fuck and was mainly their record producer) and Steve Hackett (harmonica maniac, singer hipster, producer and guitar destroyer), all virgins whom you will forget after reading this but it is important to talk about them because it is they who influenced Gabriel artistic-wise, so much so to the point we’re he just left the band in order to pursue his own stuff. He left an artsy-pop prog-rock band in order to play… more artsy-pop prog-rock by himself (Believe me, he was that much of a quirked up white man).

All of this resulting in Peter Gabriel producing a fuck ton of hand-made and home baked, albums. But on this page I’m going to talk about his first 4 studio albums which are:

#1 “Car”

This album is not anything that note-worthy. It just gives us a slight glimpse into Peter Gabriel’s quirked up nature of talking in a profound, metaphor ridden, difficult way about either the most mundane or heartbreaking shit and putting his own quirked up twist to ‘em. You can even feel this in the not-so-fitting opening track “Moribund the Burgermeister” where its lyrics are about something mundane covered in 15 hundred thousand hard coated layers of metaphors and gibberish language akin to a jaw breaker (but It could just be the fact that I am very, very dumb). What makes this album kinda special  (like most of PG’s albums) is that when listening to these songs it feels like you are witnessing an event, a parade of whimsical wonder from the weird minds of the Bri’ish coupled together with the 60’s-70’s era of disheartenment, whether it’s about love and its dating market , complexities of human relationships or just about people being sent or put into distressing or dangerous situations.

Although one cute thing I’d like to note here is something related to the second track of the album “Solsbury Hill”. Like I previously mentioned, when Peter Gabriel left Genesis he got a lil’ bit inspired to create even more artsy-pop prog-rock but by himself this time. During all of this he meditated at the Little Solsbury Hill in Somerset, England, and thus came the inspiration for this whimsical wonderful wholesome song about coming to terms to leaving behind your friends and finding new opportunities for himself, which also lead up to the creation of this whole album.

Also, also, imagine being so pathetic that Robert Fripp had to carry on this back one of your singles, very shameful.

Overall this album is quite good and I kinda like like it but that’s pretty much it, it’s a 8,64/10 for me

Link, to it

#2 “Scratch”

After a listening I think we can all, indubitably and without a shadow of a doubt, agree the fact that this fucking album is all over the place. It’s a mish mash of inconsistent themes, whether its weirdly inspirational messages to quirky random scenarios such as the ones featured in the songs “On the air” and “Mother of Violence” or its just about people going through rough circumstances that end in either a weird way or have a twist to them (or they are just depressing),  but either way the lyrics for most of these songs are pretty open-ended and are mostly left up to the listener’s imagination (sometimes) because Peter Gabby could not stop flexing his big brain muscle (this also acts as foreshadowing because he never stops doing that).

From Robert Fripp and King Crimson’s sexy-ass guitar riffs to stinging electronic synths to chaotic ragtime piano melodies coupled with sax solos and quirked up white man noises (aka. Peter Gabriel vocals) you can HEAR the unorganized nature of this album as Peter G. And Friends we’re just fucking around and experimenting with sounds and just being random (at least they we’re consistent with that). Hell, they even managed to pull out chill afternoon vibes in a song about frustration, stagnation and desire for human connection. You don’t often see quirked up brits do this.

Apart from all of that, not quite sure what to even say as to me this album doesn’t feel like a fully fledged product but more like an abomination resulted after an experiment that was let out of it’s cage and was dropped off into the human society (like a teenager going through an identity crisis).

It’s a solid 8/10, I can still respected because you can literally hear the effort that was put into it.

Link, to it

#3 “Melt/ Melty Face”

Ok so, here’s where shit gets kinda interesting cause at a first glance you might just think that this one is a horrifying, somewhat psychological in nature musical thing due to the album cover’s pretty terrifying art, thing. But just like any other Peter Gabriel production, this one is just as whimsical as ever, but just a tad bit more political in nature, except the first track which has nothing to do with politics and its freaky AF, ngl. The track “Intruder” featuring those ear tickling (in a non consensual way) guitar string scraping noises coupled together with those anxiety inducing powerful drums that really set the stage for this involuntary  defecation inducing song about a house break-in, where in this one PG really sounded like the type of guy that would actually enjoy testicular torsion.

After that track tho, the album progresses into the jolly and rocky tunes we would except from Gabriel at this point, about wacky adventures with political and somewhat villainous undertones (if you didn’t get that after the first track). There are also nods and references to certain forms of media that PG consumed , such as the book “An assassination day” by Arthur Brener (a low-life virgin that wanted attention) and a popular European TV show called “Jeux Sans Frontieres” (which he named a song after that was about portraying political figures in a childish manner, just like the show did where they dressed contestants as the said political figures performing childish activities).

Oh, and let’s forget about the murder of poor Stephen Bantu aka Steve Biko. Imagine being an anti-apartheid activist dying in police detention and then some Bri’ish bloke makes a song about you, truly bad-ass.

This album, while banging a little more harder than his previous two (thanks in part to Tony Levin’s post-apocalyptic funk bass, just , fucking, coupled together by the dynamic ranges that the songs themselves sorta extend onto for maximum immersion) its still somewhat unorganized like his previous work (like, seriously, who the fuck puts their beginner track as the 3rd one, what the fuck bro). But instead of sounding  like an unnecessarily epic orchestra for sitcoms this album sounds like it doesn’t want to appeal to the mainstream media no more.

This is by far one of my favorite Peter Gabriel albums and if you really, really really want to know why, just go listen to it lol, fuckin loser. It’s a solid 9.4/10 for me.

Link, to it

#4 “Security”

 It’s a mish mash of exotic clings and clangs made of junk and rubber and with a love towards human touch, big women and native Americans. It’s the album where Gabby drifts away from his villain persona and involves into one of intrique and wonder based on Carl Jung’s immersion into the music of the native Americans to his love of big women that he would never touch and even the soldering of new and old traditions lead to this fully digitally recorded banger.

Peter Gabby did that thing again where he would base his music off of books he would read or from shit about fuck that he would learn about and masterfully incorporate all of them together into sound. A very good example of this would the entire song “San Jacinto” where he had to learn about the ways of the wise on how to turn young native American boys into young native American men, and how their culture has been appropriated as a whimsical novelty for the enjoyment of affluent white people. (its not racist I swear), which is ironic given that Peter Gabriel, a non native American brit, made a whole song and dance about it with a somber ending about how the young boy in the song is also metaphorically carrying his heritage through a cultural wilderness where it too could die.

Or the entire song “wallflower” of which I’m not going to tell you about, because I actually want people to go and listen these albums for themselves and because fuck you, that’s why.

It may not be the best Peter Gabriel album (cause we all now that #3 is the best one) but it should be at least taken into consideration as this represented a pivotal moment in PG’s career as this one defined him as the sexy, goofy sounding, quirked up, artsy-pop brit we all know him for, but also for its somewhat scary musical diversity. I think you should listen to this at least once, since it too, like a lot of PG’s albums, can be an experience you won’t forget, and one that will give your grannies flashback’s to “the good old days”. It’s like two hours on that good, sweet and home-grown zaza.

Overall, I give this album and 8.698/10, ’eery noice.

Link, to it

And I personally think that Peter Gabriel (and Friends’s) music is really worth your time and even money, although this really depends on your musical preference and on the fact that if you can or cannot expand it. But at the very least, If you listen to any of his albums and you know how to have fun like me, you will have a quirked up time, especially if it’s 3AM and you are making mac and cheese in your underwear. Truly unforgettable experiences 69/10