So is Peter Gabriel's most famous album, released
in 1986. It displays all of his musical virtues: passion, subtlety,
humour, and experimentalism, matched with a level of accesibility
unique in his catalogue. The hits Sledgehammer, In Your Eyes, and
Big Time derive from this album, all of which are still heard on the
radio today. Despite this album's success, Peter Gabriel spent six
years crafting its successor, Us, in the process bowing
out of the pop scene whose attention this album grabbed.
The album was produced by Daniel Lanois and Peter Gabriel. All songs were written by Peter Gabriel except That Voice Again by Peter Gabriel and David Rhodes and This is the Picture (Excellent Birds) by Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel.
- Red Rain (5:38)
The album begins with characteristic subtlety; a quiet
hi-hat riff followed by reverberant keyboards and bass. These elements
build slowly until the vocals enter. The song then assumes a wide-open
sound with lots of reverb, the vocals taking a prominent place at the
centre of the mix. The slow, deliberate tempo of the song compliments
the imagistic lyrics and passionate vocals. In the end, the
instrumentation thins leaving only the vocals which eventually also
fade away.
- Sledgehammer (5:16)
The song that broke Peter Gabriel's work into the
mainstream, this song is a funky soul-pop number with jaunty rhythms
and a swinging horn accompaniment. It grooves, the pace not
slackening as a series of progressively sillier sexual innuendos are
sung. The catchy, humourous tone continues through two verses and two
choruses, leading into the bridge which is propelled by a smooth and
subtle flute solo. Following the bridge the vocals come back into
prominence, this time with counterpoint from some female backing
vocals, before the song fades away.
- Don't Give Up (6:33)
A subdued piece, this song is a duet between Gabriel and
Kate Bush. Lush synthesiser textures underly the central vocals,
Gabriel initially taking the verses and Bush the choruses. The piano
joins in the bridge before leaving in favour of the original synth
textures. Towards the end, Tony Levin contributes a very nice bass
solo, rounding off the atmosphere of the song.
- That Voice Again (4:53)
Piano chords begin this urgent, insistent piece, leading
into the full instrumentation of the chorus, complete with meandering
synthesiser tones. The instrumentation backs off to drums and subtle
synths for the verse, so that the mix can concentrate on the
vocals. Prominent keyboards build up to the chorus again,
and this cycle repeats. An atmospheric bridge follows, the vocals
returning with a more reflective bent. The song eventually ends on a
single chord.
- In Your Eyes (5:29)
A masterpiece and one of the best love songs of its time,
this song pairs an atmospheric piano part with a quiet African
percussion track, overarched with subtle and beautiful lyrics. The
most remarkable feature of this song is how casually but frequently
the lyrics rhyme, in a seemingly effortless burst of poetic
eloquence. Slow and careful in its pacing, the song manages to be both
subdued and passionate at the same time. Synth sounds weave in and out
of the chorus, as the song builds to its triumphant climax featuring
the vocal talents of Youssou N'Dour. (On recent remasters of So, this song is moved to track 9 in accord with Peter Gabriel's original concept)
- Mercy Street (6:20)
Another subdued piece, this song fades in quietly and
arhythmically before whistling synth sounds and a ringing triangle beat
enter leading to the vocal entrance. The bass and vocals chase each
other across this low sonic landscape, the vocals breaking out for the
chorus. Beginning in the chorus modulated copies of the vocals are employed to
create an interesting harmonic texture. The synthesiser has a brief,
quiet solo bridging from the chorus back to the verse. The resulting
effects give the song a calm, reflective tone.
- Big Time (4:29)
Another uptempo hit, funkier and sillier than
Sledgehammer, this song has a reverb-laden sound which has not
necessarily aged well. The lyrics satirise the cynical materialism
stereotypical of the mid-1980s with tongue-in-cheek remarks about how
supernatually large everthing in the singer's life is. The world-music
experiments of Peter Gabriel's previous albums inform the sound of
this song, but this time the textures are in service to a groove as
big as any of the big things mentioned in the lyrics. The song builds
to a climax but is defused before it reaches the obvious
conclusion.
- We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37) (3:22)
The first of the two experimental closing tracks, this
song features a heavily distorted drum beat, an equally distorted
atmospheric guitar part, and choral chants of "We do what we're
told". The result is an interesting and indescribable sonic painting,
clearing up briefly towards the end for a brief solo
verse.
- This is the Picture (Excellent Birds) (4:25)
Beginning with a semi-spoken section of vocals, this
experiment is less opaque than the preceding one using a simple
repeating instrumental figure to capture Laurie Anderson and Peter
Gabriel's unusual lyric poetry. Less interesting sonically than We Do
What We're Told, it is still an effective if oblique
closer.
All told, this album is a milestone in Peter Gabriel's career and his most accessible album. Besides being worthwhile in its own right, it serves as a good introduction to his work from which the obliqueness of his early albums and the denseness of his newer albums can be made more comprehensible.
(CC)
This writeup is copyright 2004 D.G. Roberge and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial licence. Details can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0/ .