Album Review

Peter Gabriel has always forged an exotic musical path that somehow led him to the mainstream, becoming one of those rare artists able to achieve commercial success without compromising his individuality. On Scratch My Back, his first album in 8 years, he aims to shed light on outstanding songs from both rock warhorses (Paul Simon, David Bowie, Neil Young) and from an alternative lineup that reads like a college radio programmer’s wet dream (Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Magnetic Fields).

But rather than putting his typical percussion-heavy, rhythmically inventive spin on these songs, Gabriel performs them here backed by just an orchestra. No percussions, no guitars. The old maxim says that a song can only be considered great even if it sounds great when performed with just acoustic guitar or piano. But Gabriel goes for the counterintuitive approach here; he’s out to show the beauty of these songs by removing them from their familiar settings and pumping up the majesty.

When this approach works, and it does more often than not, it’s revelatory. Gabriel takes Bon Iver’s “Flume” out of its backwoods murk and adorns it with billowing horns to illuminate a truly gorgeous melody. On “The Boy In The Bubble,” he slows down Rhymin Simon’s fast-talking riff on our declining society with a lonely piano figure. The strings eventually rise, adding a twist of tentative hopefulness to the line “These are the days of miracle and wonder.”

In many cases, Gabriel takes songs that would clearly have been right up his alley had he taken his usual rock approach and deliberately moved them out of his comfort zone with surprisingly solid results. Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage” is given a grandiose reading, over 6 minutes of false endings, choral vocals, and Gabriel wailing against a phalanx of violins. And his take on “Listening Wind” captures the spirit of the Talking Heads original while somehow seeming like an entirely different song, the lack of percussion bringing the tale to a more intimate level.

Speaking of intimacy, Scratch My Back may be at its very best on the love songs, as the orchestral swooning perfectly suits the subject matter and Gabriel’s affecting croon. “The Power Of The Heart” is lovely, bringing out a soft side of Lou Reed we never knew he had. And Gabriel also plays Magnetic Fields “Book Of Love” straight, removing the ironic twist found in Stephen Merritt’s original vocal and letting the sweetness of the sentiment run free.

Gabriel’s song selection is pretty unassailable, so that helps as well, since you’d be hard-pressed to mess up this material. But the latter third of Scratch My Back does flag a bit. Randy Newman’s “I Think it’s Going To Rain Today” hews far too close to the spotless original, and while it’s good that Gabriel included Regina Spektor’s “Apres Moi” for a female perspective, it’s the one song here where he doesn’t sound fully connected to the vocal. Finally, Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” so distinctive to begin with, is just a tough song to cover, and Gabriel’s stark effort doesn’t really bring much to the table.

All in all though, the veteran proves he’s a great interpreter. When his voice soars from humble murmur to impassioned bellow, as it seemingly does at one point on every song, it brings chills every time. While I wouldn’t dare to say that Gabriel improved on any of these songs, I feel like he definitely brings some new perspective to them, which, considering their quality and popularity in their original versions, is quite the achievement. It also makes me wonder if these artists so diverse and talented can rise to the occasion when they cover Gabriel’s music in an upcoming release. Scratch My Back should certainly have them working hard to return the favor.

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