Peter Gabriel: "Peter Gabriel" (second album)

I always thought it was cool how Peter Gabriel chose to name all 4 of his first solo albums after himself. No specific titles, not even a numerical designation, such as “Peter Gabriel 1”, “Peter Gabriel 2”, and so on. Just his name in a recognizable font in the upper left corner of the album jacket (“Security” was given a name only because David Geffen insisted on it, but you won’t see the title on the original album artwork---just the name, which is like a logo). Besides the music, the only difference between the four was the aforementioned cover art and the record labels (Atco, Atlantic, Mercury and Geffen in that order). Almost as if each album was a new edition of a magazine…same title, different contents.

The second album (designated as “Scratch” by the label) is probably the weakest of these initial four . It would be easy to say this is a “transitional” album and blame it’s weaknesses on that. It is a transitional album, but then again all of his albums have been transitional in many ways…the first being a (successful) attempt to break free of his “Genesis styling”. The third, perhaps a (successful) effort to rise above the negative reviews the second one received. And the fourth being a conscious attempt to move past the “progressive” tag, into new, previously uncharted (by ANYONE) territory . Again, successfully, I might add.

So what makes “Scratch” the least successful of them all? It’s not the musicianship, which is very solid throughout. It’s not Gabriel’s vocals, which always impress. And it’s not the production, even though it is thin by today’s standards (actually, it was kind of thin as judged by the standards of it’s day, but it was almost as if that was the way he planned it…I can’t really explain why…it’s just the impression I always had).

So that leaves us only one thing for which we can find fault in the record: the songs.

Not that they are all substandard…indeed, none of them could be considered “substandard”, in my opinion. Gabriel has not released an album with anything that wasn’t worth listening to. But “Flotsam & Jetsam”, “Perspective” “D.I.Y.”, “Animal Magic” and “A Wonderful Day in a One Way World” come close. And that’s almost half of the album right there. Decent playing and a few good lyrics amongst that lot, but none of them rises to the standard I expect.

A few do rise above that level but don’t quite reach the goal: “White Shadow”, “On the Air”, and “Mother of Violence” straddle the line between good and great. The latter, especially, has some lyrics that are quite profound

The cream of this crop are “Indigo”, “Exposure” and “Home, Sweet Home”. “Indigo” is a melancholy examination of a relationship gone bad. Robert Fripp (who produced this album) makes his presence known in “Exposure”, an almost minimalist piece that sports only two lines …“Exposure” repeated throughout and “Space is what I need, it’s what I feed on”. And that may be the key to “Scratch”. The production sounds thin because there IS so much space left alone throughout the album. It’s relatively uncluttered when compared to the rest of PG’s oeuvre (side note…Robert Fripp recorded the song and released it on an album called “Exposure” not too long after this one came out. It’s actually a very good version, possibly better than Gabriel’s. The album itself is good, too.). As for “Home, Sweet Home”, I give it the 2 thumbs up because it’s just so funny. It’s the dark-humored tale of a man who is forced by an unplanned pregnancy to marry. His wife’s dissatisfaction with the relationship, in a turn that can only be described as “extreme”, kills herself, jumping out of the window with their baby in tow. The insurance money comes in, but he thinks of it as “dirty”, so he goes to the casino planning to lose it all. But he wins, so he takes the money and buys a nice home iu the country (“with an antique carved oak door”. Ha!). A nice bit of wicked fun to close out a serious album.

All in all, Peter Gabriel’s second record is a good one. Fans who weren’t disillusioned by his decision to record as a solo artist (and the resulting album that was nothing at all like Genesis) will enjoy it. That said, it is only essential to the completist. Of which, I suspect, most Peter Gabriel fans are.