Peter Gabriel's self-titled fourth album POLL

The record cover is so great, wish I knew what it actually was.

From http://realworldgalleries.com/security/

“The artwork on album 4 was something that I’d been working on with a sculptor called Malcolm Poynter, who’s work I thought was really strong. There was a book I’d seen on distortions, a little like fairground mirrors, and we started using Flexi Mirrors”. Peter Gabriel

The final sleeve art is from an experimental video directed by Malcolm Poynter, with professional help from his editor friend David Gardner. The cover features the distorted image of Peter.

“My memory of this project, which was crucially pre Photoshop, was us dragging around Flexi Mirrors and Fresnel Lenses, and some sculptures, and then having a very creative (if chaotic) time. It was good!” Malcolm Poynter.

oh, that's nice to hear. I wondered about that for years. It looks like he's wearing a ski mask but maybe not. The images in the internal liners are great too.

Just did an image search for Malcolm Poynter--lots of distorted face sculptures. He also did a cover for Test Dept.:

https://img.discogs.com/tKaSJwgQs04AhMtgQqqi4K6BjOo=/fit-in/555x557/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-359226-1405021199-4577.jpeg.jpg

Wow, I’d always thought the photo was a still from a security camera, per the album title.

Also, as Listening Wind is mentioned upthread, PG’s cover is the only one of his orchestral songs that does anything for me. Could be a Security B-side:

https://youtu.be/RZ2omdkdk2k

Time for an 'album covers sourced from video stills' thread, a la Cabaret Voltaire

well, I’ve got it narrowed down to not The Family and the Fishing Net and probably not Wallflower

that’s enough work for today I think

Wow, I’d always thought the photo was a still from a security camera, per the album title.

― dinnerboat, Saturday, October 27, 2018 8:27 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah, I don't think Gabriel would have designed the artwork around a title that the album wasn't really meant to have!

Nah, I don't think Gabriel would have designed the artwork around a title that the album wasn't really meant to have!

No, but if the artwork was in place and the label said, "Sorry, dude, we're gonna need a title for this one," Security might have seemed like an obvious choice.

I dunno about obvious, but I quite like the way the title Security is at odds with the image - there's really nothing about that image that seems designed to make one feel secure.

It's not just the distortion effects, I think the way that the photo on the front cover has been lit as well as the colour scheme that the final product has both add to the sinister edge. The fact that people tend to not have any idea what's going on makes the sleeve creepier.

yesterday I found PG1, PG4, So, (2002 remasters) and UP on cd for 50p each.
sometimes I love charity shops.
PG1 will require a few listens I suspect, but as soon as it started I immediately knew PG4 was going to be the one for me.

you haven't heard them before? 4 is certainly the winner of that batch, followed by So. Up would be improved by being shorter but at least he took 'burn you up, burn you down' off before releasing it (it was on the promos), it's a terrible song.

It took a long time (and middle age) for me to appreciate Us but now I love it. Up is still a work in progress for me. Certainly starts out wonderfully. Need more time with it.

mark e, buy any of the film scores with confidence if you see them, they rule

you haven't heard them before? 4 is certainly the winner of that batch, followed by So. Up would be improved by being shorter but at least he took 'burn you up, burn you down' off before releasing it (it was on the promos), it's a terrible song.

yup. all new to me.
may have had So on cassette at some point, but I am not 100% certain.
and yeah, listened to Us earlier today, and its a definite moody sunday listen.
really enjoyed it.
and of course if I see any of the soundtracks I will grab them, his stuff has always been on my 'see it, buy it' list when I dig around my charity shops.
I have just had to wait a little longer, hence why yesterdays score was a lovely surprise.
just a shame they didn't have PG2 and PG3.

Until I looked it up, I always thought that the album cover reminded me of Colonel Stapp's rocket sled experiments.

http://supercurioso.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1738_1279s-Copy.jpg

I was at this same concert. My memories are vague but very positive. Bought the tour book which had all kinds of weird shit in it (an interview with Koko the sign language gorilla, some mildly disconcerting manipulated photos of Gabriel, etc.).

I saw the So tour in Glasgow, sat in probably the farthest away seats at the SECC which is/was a big useless metal barn, still enjoyed the show but yeah, I recall it being quiet.

One thing I love about that South Bank Show episode is Gabriel sketching out 'I Have the Touch' and proper getting into it...

I saw Gabriel at the Human Rights Now tour a few years after So and it was so thrilling and amazing. He did the stage dive and everything. I saw him multiple times on the US tour and I think he'd dropped that by then (great though those shows were)

Weird that this didnt get auto-bumped when the results came in. Every track got a vote, though!

this is the best album ever made

I unfortunately heard and loved Plays Live first - the studio versions are weirdly awkward sounding to me, rhythmically :-(

it's my favorite. also the first album i ever got on cd, and for a kid who was used to just taping stuff off the radio with cheap cassettes, i was NOT prepared for the sound of PG's opening wail jumping out of the speakers and into, you know, my soulllllllllllllll

'Plays Live' was my gateway to PG as a kid, the versions of all the Security tracks are fantastic.

wait - there's a band that covers songs from the first four albums and Jerry Marotta is their drummer!?

http://securityprojectband.com/go/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju85sA8UTjc

The metallic flutes/scraping in the coda to "San Jacinto" scared the hell outta me.

"I unfortunately heard and loved Plays Live first - the studio versions are weirdly awkward sounding to me, rhythmically :-("

"'Plays Live' was my gateway to PG as a kid, the versions of all the Security tracks are fantastic."

i don't really like the plays live arrangements of these songs although I feel like I may have heard that first too, I can't remember. It's not that they're more commercial sounding, but they are less....idiosyncratic. This is true for the live arrangements of most of his stuff TBF.

"wait - there's a band that covers songs from the first four albums and Jerry Marotta is their drummer!?"

yes, with Happy Rhodes doing vocals now and they've expanded their repretoire to include Kate Bush. You can check out their live releases, they're all pretty cool.

I will, thx!

The Plays Live version of “The Rhythm of the Heat” def. struck me as inferior to the studio version. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking the big African drum ensemble coda was less powerful and Gabriel did a much shorter “The rhythm has my/SOOOOOOOO-UUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLL.”

btw, Gabriel release a 62 track rarities collection digitally today. All the b-sides, etc.

but no "Out, Out"!

The cover of Joseph Arthur's "In the Sun" — one of the rarities on the new collection — is one of my favourite songs of his. All the brooding & menace of his sound (90s-fied, like the production on Us) but with more direct lyrics.

Flotsam and Jetsam is grayed out in my Spotify. Not available in the US?

The omission of "Out, Out" is puzzling, but then it didn't appear on Rated PG either. Kind of hard to imagine that there would be a rights issue — I assume PG controls all of his recordings at this juncture.

I'm a big fan of "Quiet Steam" and the Massive Attack remix of "Games Without Frontiers." So this collection is out now?

Tangentially related, I wonder how much Pearl Jam made for smartly releasing all of those live CDs when the getting was good, or certainly better? It must have been like minting money. Every time an artist like PG does something like this so late in the game, or Springsteen suddenly opens the vaults to studio stuff and especially live stuff, or Prince reissues not coming out until after his death and so on, I think, man, I know you're artists, but I wish you released all this shit people have been collecting and trading for decades when you could have made some moolah. I know Gabriel must still be swimming in it, but my first thought when this most forward thinking of artists did the anniversary "So" tour followed by a joint tour with Sting was that he needed the cash to support all his various endeavors.

He seems like a massive perfectionist though, so he probably had “plans” for all of it. I guess this is just a time to let go.

"but no "Out, Out"!"

yeah it's weird that's not on there when what I feel are duplicate or kind of useless remixes of other songs are. I'd actually forgotten what that song sounded like so I went to YouTube and it's hardly a bad track. Lovetown was left off too so I thought maybe there's some licensing thing, but who knows. Out, Out is one of two songs he did that were done with Nile Rodgers (the walk through the fire remix included was as well) and they're both overly clattery and cluttered sounding IMO; not the best creative fit.

flotsam and jetsam is available on apple music in the US, so there might just be a lag with spotify, dunno, I don't use it.

my favorite discovery on this release (aside from me and my teddy bear which i'd totally forgotten about) is the elbow remix of More Than This which is better than the album version. I know some on ILX hate Elbow and find the dull but I wouldn't mind Garvey producing a Gabriel album at this point.

I didn't care for it at the time but listening back, Curtains is a lovely song, but it's still called 'Curtains'

yeah I love curtains. I had it on the big time CD single.