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Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back
When the rumors first surfaced about Peter Gabriel doing an album of cover songs, one would have been forgiven for thinking, what the hell? Here was one of popular music’s most idiosyncratic and forward thinking artists producing a work that in other musician’s hands usually signals a sharp decline in creativity.
Fans however, would be well advised not to worry. This isn’t so much a stopgap maneuver to buy time before releasing an album of original material, as it is to provide the opportunity for one of pop music’s most unique voices to be a master interpreter as opposed to inventor.
Some of the choices seem obvious like the cover of Elbow’s Mirrorball, where the register of Gabriel’s voice is a solid match for Guy Garvey’s delivery but elsewhere the tracks seem more of a reinvention. Gabriel’s stated intention of doing something different by using only orchestration and not using guitars or drums at all has paid dividends.
Tracks like the Talking Head’s Listening Wind, Lou Reed’s The Power Of The Heart and Neil Young’s Philadelphia benefit greatly from this arrangement approach. There has always been the misstep in covers albums to merely reproduce the original without adding anything unique to it. That trap is avoided here.
Seen as an addition to an already impressive back catalogue, this album gives Gabriel a chance to add another dimension to fan’s appreciation of the man and his voice. For those unfamiliar with his work, these tracks provide an interesting introduction.
Rob Hudson
www.petergabriel.com
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