Scratch My Back

Bought this album on a whim, iv'e always liked Peter Gabriel's music. On first playing, I found the music a bit over orchestrated and samey and I wasn't that impressed. I was expecting to like Street Spirit (as the Bends is my Favourite album} but even that left me cold.
I played the album a few days later. "The boy in the bubble", and "Mirrorball" sounded quite nice, I then heard "The Book of Love" for the second time and my knees went weak, what a gorgeous song, it makes me feel so good. Every time I play the album it seems to get better. Flume is beautiful, "The Power of the Heart" "Philadelphia" lovely. There is not a bad song on the album. "Heroes" and "Street Spirit" are probablly my least favourites. But i'm sure i'll get to like them eventally. I have since bought "69 songs by Magnetic Fields (The book of Love) on the strengh of this Album- But thats another story.

Iv'e never written a review before, but I love this album so much. Please ignore the poor reviews, If you have given the Album a poor review Listen to it again, and again. You wont be sorry.

I was a huge fan of Peter Gabriel in my youth, both as part of Genesis and in his solo career, seeing him live on many occasions. As life got more complicated I lost touch with his music, coming across it with pleasure now and then in film scores and at the millenium dome. And that's rather how I came upon this, recognising his dulcet tones in the sublime 'My Body Is A Cage' as background (fore and centre ground too, overpoweringly wonderful as it was) in an episode of House. I've had the album two weeks now and it grows more of a joy at each listen, new tracks becoming favourites with familiarity. Mirrorball is particularly heavenly, The Book of Love a delight, but most tracks illicit goose bumps. So here I am at 53, a Peter Gabriel fan once again. Utterly beautiful.

3.5 stars

I honestly wanted to love this album. Peter Gabriel is a national treasure and I am sadly old enough to admit to seeing Genesis at Bristol's Colston Hall in 1973 where Gabriel was mesmerizing. When I saw them next at Knebworth in 1978 he wasn't in the band and I preferred Devo (unlike the majority of the crowd!). Gabriel has always ploughed his own furrow and his development of WOMAD deserves a knighthood. He has a great sense of humour and his recent cover with Hot Chip of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" by Vampire Weekend is a wicked gem.

"Scratch my back" is not just a covers album it's about song exchange with the different artists covered pledging to return the favour. I had hoped that Gabriel's album could do a "Joni Mitchell". When the great lady revisited her standards the mature reading that she produced through a voice that was no longer angelic but infused with a life of experience and backed by a stirring orchestra was superb. Songs like "Both Sides Now" sounded better than the originals.

Gabriel's covers are certainly well chosen and show impeccable taste (although "My Body is a cage" is a least favourite Arcade Fire song), the problem is that some work incredibly well while other fall flat. Thus Gabriel's version of Bon Iver's "Flume" for instance is workmanlike and misses the mark. His reading of Neil Young's "Philadelphia" never quite captures the quiet desperation and sheer sadness to be found on the original. When we finally get a cover like Radiohead's "Street Spirit" that is so radically reworked that it is almost unrecognizable to the original, you punch the air. The trouble is that it just does not work and is mournful and dreadfully dull. Indeed my dog gave me a dirty look when I played it! "I think its going to rain today" by Randy Newman takes a brave singer to attempt and again Gabriel's version stays so close that it is almost a reprise and as such can't really add much. Sorry when it comes to David Bowie's "Heroes" why tamper with perfection?

The good news is that "The Boy in the Bubble" (Paul Simon) is excellent. Indeed for the first time ever you realise what a subversive lyric underpins the song which is sung with crystal clarity by Gabriel. The "Listening Wind" (Talking Heads) cover is I think actually better than the original. Its interesting that Gabriel is most at home here with the African related songs. Thus the Talking Heads original is slowed down to a much sadder and reflective piece. I can't comment on "Power of the Heart" the Lou Reed cover since I have never heard the original but Gabriel's take is lovely. Elbows "Mirrorball" works really well for Gabriel's voice indeed he has compared it to singing a difficult Genesis song. The orchestration works brilliantly on this as it does on the cover of Stephen Merritt's wonderful "Book of Life". Gabriel's version is a knockout.

Look I'm not saying don't buy this album since it is a fascinating attempt by a major artist to deconstruct and reconstruct a set of songs which are on the whole faultlessly chosen. You just wish it was a bit more unique and that a greater exercise of re -imagination had occurred.