Peter Gabriel

Us

Not his best, but better than most anything else..

Review Score:

(6/10)
I really wanted to love this disc. I bought it when it first came out. It seemed (and still does)to be very disjoint; the songs don't go together well as an album. I like the songs better individually. Opening the CD with "Talk to Me" was a mistake. Sure it sets the subject matter of the rest of the songs, but musically it is long and boring. The introspective nature of the songs gets a little tiring. I guess I am just not in that space right now. The song writing is weak on this CD, too. The lyrics to Steam and others seem very forced; rhymes for rhymes sake. The songs seem contructed rather than written, and this is indeed the way Gabriel goes about putting songs together in the studio. The recording of Digging in the Dirt sounds very muddy; it sounds like it was intensional. Listen to how the drums come in and out in that song. I find this very annoying.

Before you write me off as a Gabriel-hater, let me say that I am one of his biggest fans. That is why I was so disappointed in this CD. I liked the songs much better after seeing the Secret World video; although heavily dubbed and edited, one of the best video concerts I have ever seen.

I am looking forward to Gabriels next CD, due out early next year. I think he is one of the best and most consistant solo artists this is. I think he got a little off track on this one.

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