[Senn20]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sordel /img/forum/go_quote.gif For consistency in excellence, I actually think that PG1 is the best, but it has very little consistency of style, something that PG has really worked on as the years have gone on. It's difficult to think of an artist whose first four or five albums are so different from one another in atmosphere, but I think that he settled upon a musical signature with So that was written all across his later albums. Instead of getting the best song like "Here Comes The Flood" that he could write juxtaposed with the best song that he could write like "Excuse Me" or "Here Comes The Dolce Vita" or "Solsbury Hill" now suddenly we were getting an entire album of approximations to a narrow range of songs off So. For that reason, I think that So was the album that knocked PG off his game for a good few years. Up seems to have brought him back to his best work.

I have to disagree here. Us is a very different sounding album from So.

And it's "Down The Dolce Vita," btw.

Also the piano version of "Here Comes The Flood" from Shaking The Tree completely destroys the version on PG1. Gabriel himself said that PG1 was a very rushed album and it shows. A great collection of songs, but his later albums are much more cohesive.

 

[Sordel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senn20 /img/forum/go_quote.gif And it's "Down The Dolce Vita," btw.

Oops.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senn20 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also the piano version of "Here Comes The Flood" from Shaking The Tree completely destroys the version on PG1.

If it's like the piano version on the live DVD, I'm surprised that you should think so. For me, "Here Comes The Flood" is a song that needs to go big, which is managed very well on the original version. If you go for understated pathos, the final line (quiet on the original) loses some of its impact. For contrast, imagine an understated version of "Family Snapshot": if you don't have the build-up, the "lonely boy hiding behind the front door" section wouldn't work. I feel that PG has gone too often for low-key vocal performances because he's lost some of his vocal power as he's got older, leading to a tendency towards maudlin, soppy performances such as his cover of "Suzanne" from Tower of Song.

As for PG's verdict on an album being "rushed" ... that's like a glacier complaining about rapid landscape erosion.

 

[gloco]

I purchased Up a while ago and never sat down to listen to it...now I'm curious to try it out. Thanks for the review Mark!

 

[Nightfall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sordel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oops. "If it's like the piano version on the live DVD, I'm surprised that you should think so. For me, "Here Comes The Flood" is a song that needs to go big, which is managed very well on the original version.

'

Couldnt agree more.


JC

 

[Relayer71]

I found UP dissappointing...for a Peter Gabriel album. A couple of great songs, yes - but overall the album felt dull or just not fully fleshed out. I think the first track sums up the feeling I got with most of the songs: it starts off VERY aggressively then settles into a lovely, haunting atmospheric chorus...the formula is repeated and then...that's it. The song ends. It starts off promising but ends up sounding like a demo, an unfinished idea, and repetetive.

Most of the album feels like that to me, like more could have been done with each song...an extended instrumental section here instead of a verse, a more heartfelt climax there, a solo here... or in the case of some tracks, like "Growing Up", ending it sooner. That, I think seems to be what bugged me the most - the songs seemed to drag. If you're not going to fill 7 or 8 minutes up with varied and interesting themes/ideas/sounds then 3 or 4 minutes should do the trick.

And The Barry Williams Song not only does not fit in, but it's just not a very good song - more like a "b-side".
I do agree that Signal to Noise is excellent though.

Interestingly enough, the songs I don't like much on the album come off much better on the live DVD (a must have) - they sound less sterile and "by-the-book".

I don't think he will ever top 1986's So. That album was FLAWLESS, every song a gem. Us was also a very good album. Up is simply mediocre.

And even better than "So" is 1974's Genesis release, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Peter and the band in their prime.

 

[fyrfytrhoges]

i have to go on the record as saying i am a fan of early genesis gabriel, i have a hard time getting past the theatrics and the costumes, they were awesome!

however i would agree with mark, up is a masterpiece, and to go against the grain, i would say "the barry williams show" is a decent song. it might not fit so to say, but i happen to like it myself. the dvds of the up tour were awesome as well, great picture quality and sound....