297. Peter Gabriel, "So"

 


An absolute monster of an album that contained a few hit singles, one of which was turned into maybe the best music video of all time, easily the best music video up to that time.  Of course, I'm talking about "Mercy Street."  No I'm not, you doofus, I'm talking about "Sledgehammer."


Pretty fucking catchy for the guy who got kicked out of Genesis for being too weird, huh?  OK, it wasn't exactly like that, to be fair.  He left, citing a desire to spend more time with family blah blah blah but then he started to go off into some avant-garde musical/film experiments.  He also put out a string of semi-successful solo albums, but nothing like this one.

So let me say this is not really my shit and it took me a few listens but there is a lot of interesting stuff going on here.  You all know "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time," two obviously soul-influenced songs, both of which are immediately catchy and bouncy and it's no surprise they became just massive hits.  You also know "In Your Eyes," which everyone over the age of 35 (i.e., most of the people I assume are reading this) knows from John Cusack and the boombox.  HOWEVER I learned Gabriel apparently wrote it for Rosanna Arquette, whom he was having an affair with at the time.  This means that there are at least two hit songs written about Rosanna Arquette, this one and "Rosanna" by Toto.  I mean, Rosanna Arquette was cute, but there was more than one girl in the world, 80's music artists!  (Also, the less said about the Toto song, the better.)

Beyond those we get to the weirder, more experimental stuff, some of which is great and some not.  "Mercy Street" is lovely, inspired by an Anne Sexton poem, quiet and meditative.  "That Voice Again" soars (although it sounds awfully dated today).  On the other hand, "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" is a little too self-consciously arty for me.  Maybe that's what happens when you get together with Laurie Anderson.  Or maybe I'm just too dense to appreciate it.  

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Yes.

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