Album Review: Peter Gabriel, Scratch My Back
A COVERS album with a difference, Peter Gabriel's second outing of the century is bold in selection and sophisticated in execution.
Much is down to arranger John Metcalfe, once of The Durutti Column, smartly balancing lightness of touch and drama-laden power chord orchestration. But primarily Gabriel's distinctive vocal, now more cracked and edgy at the limits of his range, is the star of this show.
Advertisement
Hide AdBon Iver's Flume becomes a towering chamber rock epic, drenched in enigmatic emotions, David Byrne's neurotic Living Wind a bleakly brilliant tale of everyday terrorism, and the Magnetic Fields' The Book Of Love is transformed into the kind of tune embraced by contemporary American television comedy drama. Yes, you may well have heard it on Scrubs.
Regina Spektor's Apres Moi becomes the most sinister of cautionary tales with exhilarating strings and Gabriel's pained yodelling. The more obscure songs are the backbone of the record.
Bookending the album are Bowie's Heroes and Radiohead's Street Spirit, but neither can wriggle free of the celebrated originals, and are pale imitation rather than dramatic reinvention.
Download this: Flume, Living Wind, Book Of Love
This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday, February 14, 2010.