Peter Gabriel

he always plays that, he must like it, but weirdly it's a song that I don't recall anyone loving, ever (like Steam)

the band clearly loves playing "big time," so i was cool with it. i did lol at the only transition from that somber song being "what time is it??" *crash, bang*

also the skeleton flipping off the crowd on the video screen

I like "Quiet Steam" from the Flotsam & Jetsam collection — he played a bit of it on the Secret World tour before launching into Loud Steam. I'm hoping he does more music in that spare, subdued mode in future: minimal instrumentation, turbulence just below the surface, etc.

I've always been a big fan of the Massive Attack remix of "Games Without Frontiers."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mauZeyroS0Y

yeah that was a great remix/remake.

Quiet Steam was def preferable to Steam as released, but it also set a template for most of what he's done since; like, a lot of Up sounded like that. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it gets kind of dull.

I'm just bummed that for a guy so interested in rhythm, and with so many great drummers to choose from, he's often defaulted for much of the past 25 years to these sort of boring, canned loops.

I heard "Quiet Steam" on the "Digging..." cassingle. Imagine my surprise when I heard the album version.

me as well. 'surprise' is one way of putting it.

He really took a sledgehammer to it

I have a feeling every Peter Gabriel song starts pretty chill and/or slow, and either he realizes it and decides to pep something up or someone else does. A useful reminder: the evolution of "Sledgehammer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJU_MLQc2fc

I will say that I actually prefer Steam to Sledgehammer these days

I've been playing this version at DJ gigs lately and people go crazy once it kicks in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg3VdmCD-H4

Kurt s I want you to mash that up with Eminence Front SO BADLY

The album cover has been revealed:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Peter_Gabriel_album_cover.jpg

I actually really like this, even if the sensibility feels dark for most of the material. It has obvious echoes of the Melt cover in the placement of hands and seemingly droopy eye, but suggests mediated coherence rather than defacement, in keeping with the album's technological themes: he's holding himself together.

much nicer cover than what I was expecting, which was that garish yellow/pink i/o treatment he gave most of the tour merch. But other photos from this session were used for the cover of the tour programme (and some stage projections) and they looked really cool.

I'm much happier with this album these days than I was when the songs first started dropping; made my own playlist matching the proposed running order and it flows great. I still have issues with how some of the songs end (olive tree and road to joy) but who knows if either of the mixes out will be the ones that make the album.

Seeing him tonight in the desert with the new moon :)

I’m just jumping in to say I absolutely love “Big Time”, it would be one my “hope this is played” list and it’s one of my favorite songs of his

I sang "Big Time" at karaoke yesterday. The version they used helpfully included a prerecorded high harmony vocal.

Considering the circumstances -- Prince Charles, wardrobe choices, haircuts, Midge Ure -- this version of "Sledgehammer" slams. Phil Collins behind the kit sounds great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftB23tIV_i8

Is that Mick Karn in the b/g?

Album release finally announced, December 1. Putting out both mixes and you can choose which one you want (plus the atmos mixes on blu ray, which I don't deal with). Giant deluxe box with a book of course as well which I'll also skip because I've stopped spending money on things like that.

https://petergabriel.com/news/i-o-release-date-announcement/

I've made playlists of both the bright and dark side mixes, and on the whole enjoy the Blake/darkside mixes slightly more but honestly the differences are very very slight; I imagine he got them into an almost done state and then asked each person to just finish and polish them, but there are no differences in arrangements, big discrepencies on reverbs, or different musical or vocal takes that I've noticed.

Rumor is that he will tour again next year (this coming from someone who talked to Tony Levin's tour manager who told them he was on tour half of next year with Gabriel again)

The last "Y' he sings at the end of DIY on 'Plays Live' is the most insane thing ever, it's kinda thrilling.

I'm looking forward to his next record, hope he gets working on it soon.

there was some indication that he planned to just continue releasing new songs on full moon days and if so, I think that's a cool way to go forward. I know this release strategy annoyed a lot of people who were just like "give me the full album now" but as an ongoing policy for clearing out his backlog of work it's a promising direction. of course he'll probably not do it.

The last "Y' he sings at the end of DIY on 'Plays Live' is the most insane thing ever, it's kinda thrilling.

i'm like oddly thrilled i'm not the only person who knows this

He really pushed his voice around, pretty much from the early Genesis period, even within his first solo record, Moribund, Dolce Vita, Excuse Me, Modern Love, Waiting... all very different approaches.

I think he was still trying to figure out what he wanted to be. I don't know if I first saw it here or elsewhere, but I found this interesting clip from Fripp speaking about working with Gabriel and specifically the role of the producer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e57g_tPUgYw

Holy crap, And Still is completely amazing, absolutely the best song of this batch and one of my favorite songs that he's ever recorded. As someone whose mother died this year, it was really, really moving. Musically it feels like the one song from the album that is arranged in a completely new way.

I didn't post about it, but the show was so good.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson doing "Don't Give Up" absolutely stole the show

I really liked "Love Can Heal," which I forgot he did when he toured with Sting. Don't think it was changed much in six years.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson doing "Don't Give Up" absolutely stole the show

― The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, November 10, 2023 1:30 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

she was wonderful

so angry we didn't get this tour here

Album leaked.

He's been leaking it himself for the past year, lol.

I was about to say, how the fuck it could be leaked.

there's only one song left 'unreleased'

As a complete album, that is.

All the mixes are the ones he's already released! There's zero leaking here, there's more "I have assembled the previously existing songs as a playlist oh and here's the one other one."

he should have released all the stems and had a fan mix contest, and then released the best mixes submitted by his fans.

Well it leaked in an organised form at least

He's released a lot of tracks in the last year, we're all aware here. Many acts do this. Now [i/o is out in, to quote PaulTMA, in its full form as a downloadable thing. Whether you care about this form is another question.

Which mix tho

All the bright and dark mixes, apparently.

yeah he's releasing both and you can choose which one you want so I assume the preview versions shipped and that's how the final song got out. hasn't shown up for me in my regular places yet though.

When you reach his age, leaking is almost inevitable

Did that entire Scratch My Back/I'll Scratch Yours project produce a single good song?