Peter Gabriel

Secret World Live

Top Notch Live Album

Review Score:

(10/10)
"Secret World" is the second of two live albums released by Gabriel, and by far the better of the two. The first, "Plays Live," was released twelve years earlier, and "Secret World" reveals an artist who had made tremendous strides in the meantime.

Truly great live albums should offer versions of the songs on them that are either substantially altered and/or substantially improved from the originals. For the most part, that's what Gabriel includes here. He was backed on his 1993 by a crack group of world musicians, some of them who participated in his "Us" studio album. As such, it is the best meld of rock and roll with world music since Paul Simon's "Graceland." "Us" is represented by seven of the double album's fifteen tracks and nearly all of the songs top the six minute mark. In fact, if there is a drawback to this album, it's that "Solsbury Hill" is the only one pre-"So" (1986) song to make the playlist. True, Gabriel most likely did not want to repeat himself extensively from "Plays Live," but this record is so good, it leaves you begging to hear the versions of his earlier material as he played them on this tour.

But that's a minor quibble. This is a fantastic live album that also, unfortunately, represents the only rock album Gabriel has released in the last decade. Here's hoping we haven't heard the last of him.

More Reviews: