Peter Gabriel

Us

Excellent at many levels

Review Score:

(10/10)
Peter Gabriel immersed himself in the opening of his recording studio two years before releasing Us in 1992. He meticulously picked out all the equipment and oversaw its construction. It all led to the culminating recording of his career, Us, a sonically perfect album where musical nuances can easily be picked out even by the most amateur ear.
It was no mistake that Gabriel hired the best-and for the most part, his usual-studio musicians. He wanted every note played to be essential to the album as a whole, or as fleeting as pop music allows a note to be. Drummer Manu KatchÃ© had never been so incisive in his craft, playing in a controlled and precise manner, setting a new bar for all drummers. The same can be said about guitarist/producer David Rhodes.
This recording is a painstaking study of human relationships-more specifically heartbreak-with the exception of two tracks, "Steam" and "Kiss that Frog." They seem to belong to a different album; they are not-so-subtle references to sexual acts. Lyrics such as "Let me introduce his frogness, you alone can get him singing," make their content quite clear.
The album opens with "Come Talk to Me," a plea reminiscent of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique's subtext. The music sways with a distorted string section and a bagpipe, painting a dramatic picture and scoring a wrenching supplication for attention. "Blood of Eden" tells an almost biblical story, one of birth and death, love and hate, creation and destruction. The stanzas are arranged like folk songs from parts of Africa, in cyclical form and with codas. "The Washing of the Water" is a prayerlike song where the "river" could be a deity and the singer is seeking release from unrequited love. Again, Berlioz's subtext comes into play.
Us opened the door to new musical sensibilities in 1990s popular music. It's hard to imagine the success of bands like Phish or Rusted Root without this recording.

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