Saturday, December 7, 2019

The 1986 Listening Post - Peter Gabriel - So

Peter Gabriel - So



#179/1344
May 19 1986
Peter Gabriel
So
Genre: Rock
5 out of 5 



Highlights:
Red Rain
Sledgehammer
Mercy Street
Big Time
In Your Eyes




Four years after he broke through with Security…this record. 
Honestly, I think I heard it in it’s entirety exactly once. My ex-wife owned it and she used to refer to things as a “grand facade” all the time and it was all I could do to not shout at her, “you are using that incorrectly!!!!” because…she was. but she thought it sounded good. 
She also thought when I told her something she said was “oxymoron” that I was calling her a “moron” and she tried to hit me. 
She also took no ownership of mistakes, instead preferring to just say, “Oh, well”, two words that are anathema to me when put together for over 30 years now. 
There’s more. There’s soooooo much more.

Why not open this record with “Sledgehammer”? Seems like the perfect opener. Not that “Red Rain” is bad but…ok, what do I know? (Will he “show for you” or “Chauffeur you”? I don’t know. I think they both work). 

The thing is so top heavy with great singles that it feels like a Greatest Hits album. Which is a testament to where Gabriel was at this moment. The non hits are perfectly fine. But they are outmatched by what is great here. I can’t tell if the they are actually good or just ok because of the giants next to which they play. 


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