Today is Peter Gabriel’s 74th birthday, so Webb celebrates that with a rave review of his latest album, simply titled I/O.
For readers who were living under a rock in the eighties, Gabriel is the legendary singer, songwriter and musician whose 1986 album So went platinum five times.
Propelling him promptly from cult-fave figure to bona fide superstar, that record yielded the hits “Red Rain,” “In Your Eyes,” “Big Time” and “Sledgehammer”; impressively, the latter knocked “Invisible Touch” — a single by his former band, Genesis — out of number-one on the pop charts.
I’ve been a Gabriel fan for decades — both his early solo stuff, and especially those astounding first six Genesis records (1969-74). But the artist hasn’t made an all-new studio album in more than 20 years — and that one (2002’s Up) was so dismal, I figured his recording career was over.
Silly me.
Released one song at a time last year in support of Gabriel’s world tour, I/O is, quite simply, a masterpiece.
With top-shelf lyrics, composition and musicianship, with rich throbbing textures and irresistible pop appeal, this album just keeps sounding better every time you cue it up.
Covering nearly 70 minutes, I/O’s 12 tracks range from meditative, piano-driven melodies (highlighting Gabriel’s gorgeous voice) to soaring, joyous, danceable winners that sound like they came right off of So — along with all those other hits.
A tireless promoter of world music (just look up WOMAD sometime), Gabriel layers in a wide array of instrumentation: ukelele, charango, mandolin, congas, French horn, saxophone, wine glasses and something called “hairy drums” — plus a full orchestra of more than 30 musicians. It’s hard to single out a favorite, but I will say the percussion on this record is sensational.
Vocals, meanwhile, are provided by several backup singers (including Gabriel’s daughter Melanie), along with Africa’s amazing Soweto Gospel Choir and Sweden’s all-male Orphei Drangar, featuring dozens of tenors and basses.
Lyrically, the record is sometimes too New Age-y and pantheistic (especially the title track, which repeatedly insists, “I’m just a part of everything”). But many other tunes make touching pleas for love, patience and kindness (“So Much,” “Road to Joy,” “Playing for Time”).
This is particularly true on the last two tracks: “And Still,” a heartfelt tribute to the singer’s late mother, plus “Live and Let Live,” which offers utterly compelling appeals on the need to forgive (“Release all the shackles one by one; we belong to the burden till it’s gone”).
That track, though quiet and not even released yet, was Gabriel’s second-set closer on his recent tour. Indeed, when I saw him last year in Buffalo, nearly half the songs were new and thus not terribly familiar; but the crowd didn’t seem to mind at all — that’s how good this new stuff is.
Two other notable features on I/O:
After Gabriel released the 12 songs once a month during each full moon in 2023, he finally collected them in CD form and put that out on Dec. 1. The package offers two discs, each with all 12 tunes in a “Bright Side” and a “Dark Side” mix — though it takes an attentive ear to appreciate the subtle differences.
The CD also comes with an attractive booklet featuring carefully selected artwork to accompany each song; according to Gabriel’s liner notes, he hopes this will help the songs “open up a little more” — that the visuals “might allow the listener/viewer a different way in.”
Sadly, the booklet does not contain lyrics. Granted, they are readily available online; but even those posted at Gabriel’s own website are not always perfectly accurate.
Let me close by confessing that while I raved about So, I still prefer Gabriel’s first solo effort — the one with a rain-spattered blue car on the cover. Offering a vast range of musical styles — including the major hit “Solsbury Hill” and many softer moments that are nicely echoed on I/O — that initial record remains my favorite Gabriel album.
I/O is currently running a close second.
