The news on this has been out a while, but the release is less than a month away. The album is called Scratch My Back.
I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, I’m a huge Peter Gabriel fan. (Hell, I even bought Ovo, which is largely an overpriced bag of suck with a few bright spots.) Peter Gabriel III still ranks among my favorite albums of all time.
On the other hand, when artists I like came out with similar albums (Fish’s Songs from the Mirror and Tori Amos’ Strange Little Girls), they sucked pretty hard. Plus I think the “orchestral versions, no drums or guitars” idea sounds more like a lame gimmick than a wisely-considered choice.
Anyway, for an advanced taste, here’s Gabriel covering David Bowie’s “Heroes”. The orchestration is actually more interesting than Gabriel’s vocals here. It reminds me somewhat of John Adams’ “Phrygian Gates”.
And here’s his cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”. Man, Gabriel’s voice sounds awful, much worse than Tom Waits, but without his pitch or power. I sure hope this isn’t the final version. And the original version of that song is great.
And those two (along with Paul Simon’s “Boy in the Bubble”) were the covers I was most interested in hearing.
I hate to say it, but if Gabriel’s voice is really that blown, maybe he should stick to soundtracks. (His soundtracks for Birdy, The Last Temptation Of Christ and Rabbit-Proof Fence were all excellent.)
Tags: covers, Fish, Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, suckitude, Tori Amos
I hear you on Peter Gabriel III. I sang some Shock The Monkey karaoke at a gay bar in Athens, GA. Much fun.
Duran Duran’s Thank You covers album isn’t that great. Most cover albums aren’t.
Two words: contractual obligation. As in: I have to give the label one more album of material to close out my contract. What’s the least I can do to fulfill that obligation? Usually the answers are live album, greatest hits album, or a covers album.
I listened to part of Heroes, and you’re right, hard suck. I coulnd’t listen to the whole thing because the high pitched, I guess violins, were hurting my ears. I also used to really like Peter Gabriel. I like his stuff even before III, back to the 2nd album with DIY and On the Air, and then Games Without Frontiers on the next album. I think it’s possible he falls into that category of musician who was better when they were still angry.