Emily: Last week, I was at the gym and I saw the music video for Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. (Yes, my gym has its own channel of ‘80s music videos. Doesn’t yours?) I didn’t think much of it, except that its stop-motion images were definitely innovative for the ‘80s, and still pretty cool today. Little did I know that I would encounter the same song today on Gabriel’s fifth album, So. Usually I think of Gabriel as an experimental-lite artist, trying out new sounds while still remaining relatively friendly to the mainstream. So tips a little closer to the mainstream end of things. Songs like the aforementioned Sledgehammer are a bit more rock and pop, but still innovate with influences from around the world. Other tracks embody Gabriel’s prog-rock roots. While sometimes the jumps from genre to genre are a bit stark, it somehow works together to create Gabriel’s unique sound.
Favorite Tracks: Sledgehammer; Don’t Give Up; This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)
Zack: About two tracks in to So, I texted my Dad if he owned any of his CDs. I had a sneaking suspicion that he had been secretly putting headphones over my head and making me listen to it while I slept because I was sure it sounded familiar but could not remember ever having listened to one of his CDs a day in my life. Apparently, he has no Gabriel but some older Genesis stuff. A likely alibi, I thought to myself as I stroked my imaginary beard and plotted my revenge. Seriously though, I knew Sledgehammer going in (obviously), but the rest should have been new to me. And yet, there was this unmistakable familiarity. Maybe, in a past life, I was Peter Gabriel! He’s not dead? Well, damn. There goes that theory. I don’t know. This is all very confusing. But what didn’t confuse me was that So was good. So good in fact. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Was he just being clever there, or does he just have poor grammatical skills. I don’t even know anymore. But we're just going to leave it there anyway.
Favorite Tracks: Sledgehammer; In Your Eyes; Red Rain
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