Melt
Everything Gabriel touches turns to gold on this cd. Peter Gabriel's third album, know by the distorted image of Gabriel on the front cover, as Melt, is without a doubt an awesome collection of prog rock music. The opening track "Intruder" is a great starter, setting a dark, sinister tone, with a steady drum beat, and gothic piano driving much of the song. "No Self-Control" is song which captures the frantic pace of life, while making good use of a xylophone, with Kate Bush singing backup. "Start" is a slower instrumental piece, with a beautiful intermingling of synth and saxophone, played by Dick Morressey, a brief interlude before jumping into "I Don't Remember" a classic Gabriel track, ostensibly about the perils of an empty head. "Family Snapshot" is one of my favorite tracks, about an assasination, by a man who's grown up through a sad chilhood, his mother and father apparently divorcing. A somewhat weaker track is "And Through the Wire", although it is up tempo, and gives me an impression of someone apparently looking through a wire fence of a self made prison. Next is the classic "Games Without Frontiers" with Kate Bush singing in a sexy, breathy voice "Jeux sans frontieres", and reminds me a bit of "Lord of the Flies", I like the dark sense of this song. "Not One of Us" is a song about conformity, or the lack thereof. "Lead a Normal Life" is a soft, somber piece, evidently about someone in a mental institution being told "We want to see you lead a normal life". The piano is haunting in this track. The last track is the phenomenal song "Biko", a tribute to Steve Biko, a noted black South African anti-apartheid activist who died after being 'interrogated'. It's a powerful song, with a steady beat kept by Phil Collins, and Gabriel's emotional voice singing "Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja, the man is dead". It's a song that always moves me, and one that will move you. As it ends Gabriel sings "And the eyes of the world are watching now", very powerful stuff.
It's albums like this one that have given Peter Gabriel a well deserved reputation as a musical and artist genius. I'd highly recommend this cd to anyone.
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Peter Gabriel's Classic Has Just Gotten a Lot Better!
"Games Without Frontiers" seemed to herald the onset of early 80's New Wave and in my mind it is still the definitive New Wave track which like any classic should still sounds very, very good today. Having left the successful early Genesis and embarking upon a solo career of his own, Peter Gabriel had a couple of interesting, competent releases but it wasn't until the release of this baby, his third, did he seem to have hit the right formula for a great overall album containing interesting but also consistently very good tracks.
Other brilliant tracks here include "I Don't Remember", "Family Snapshot" and the excellent "Biko" rank among the greatest work that Gabriel has ever done. Yet all the other tracks are also very good and don't remotely resemble filler material. This together with "So" are his two best ever albums to date and "Shaking the Tree" is one of the best ever compilation albums.
This version is a real treat for fans as it comes in a mini-lp replica sleeve design which is rather well put together despite the thin cardboard and it very faithfully resembles the original lp design down to the inner sleeve. Also included is an insert containing all the lyrics in both English and Japanese.
Most important of all is that the remastering was very well done resulting in a very good sound quality making this album sound just as fresh today as it did way back then. Who says New Wave is dead? Not as long as a certain Mr. Gabriel is alive.
Highly recommended.
Peter Gabriel goes "without frontiers"
Peter Gabriel 3: Melt, is undoubtly the artist's most experimental, dark, complex and implicit in its content, a masterpiece throughout a music tendency, and his definitively best of all times. Luis Mejia (son) - Generally speaking, its notorious that the most intriguing fase in Peter Gabriel's music is the one kept in his first four albums, until So, which leads into a more commercial fase. While his previous two entered into a more accessible aspect of experimental/progressive rock music, this album keeps a complete dark atmosphere, regarding a side in art rock music that would become firm and solid, I even agree with other reviewers who think that this was also inside just before the new wave explosion; a "delightful madness" in its songs, a versatility but cohersion in its context, and still fine and accessible experiments in his music; that's what makes it his best, swinging from the dark brutality of the hipnotic "Intruder" (with Phil Collins on drums), the blasting instrumentation and mastership in the perforing "No Self-Control", the rebelling "I Don't Remember", the heartful and serious, dramatic atmosphere of "Family Snapshot", the mixed style which penetrated perfectly into popular streams of (my personal favourite) "Games Without Frontiers" to the humanitarian, world music-inflicted "Biko", this release proofs to be comprehensible into popular mainstream and professional, serious ambits in an exact way, with the same impact. Peter Gabriel's vocals and compositions at his best, with Kate Bush in some backing vocals and the chapman stick of Tony Levin; inmaculate performance, being as experimental as possible but yet very familiar and not slick.
The remastered version has a great sound quality, but not perfect, some new pictures in the intern artwork, no bonus tracks.
Stark Melt
The "Dave Matthews" and much of the 1990's "alternative" scene may owe their careers to this collection of thought to music. One cannot listen to this without being affected in one way or another and this is how "the artist" planned it I believe. Not for the faint-hearted. . . . and should be noted as historic.
Lost without Banks and Rutherford
Actually, I think Banks' solo outings are more interesting and that is not saying much. Let's be honest folks Gabriel is not as great as he has been made out to be. I do like Games without frontiers and I like the progressive vibe throughout some of the songs. But, overall this is minimalistic garbage that somehow attracted an audience. I really can't understand why Phil and Pete became so popular. Both put out some of the most banal lacking music of the 80s and 90s. At least we still have their wonderful work of the 70s.
You can see a complete list of all Peter Gabriel discography, or go back to the Peter Gabriel tabs
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