The former Genesis madman continued his series of eponymous albums in 1980 with “Peter Gabriel”, or as some call it “Peter Gabriel 3” or “Melt”. The album has been received a great deal of positive press over its thirty plus year gestation period. Let’s take a look and see if the album really holds up as well as critics say.
The first thing you will notice is how crisp the album sounds despite the increasing age of the album. Gabriel has always been known as a mad scientist in the studio, and “3” was one of the first commercial albums to make use of sampling and the “Fairlight” digital recording system. The album opens with the incredibly creepy “Intruder”, a song about home invasion giving us a look at the inner monologue of a criminal mind. The song features atonal guitar chords, giving a sense of unease paranoia. Sampled sounds pepper the song, and marimbas and glasses add a general feeling of mischief. Drums are treated, but quite warm and the song has a quite heavy beat. Primus would later cover the song, and the influence on the alternative movement that would develop in the late 1980s is very obvious. This is not normal music, and Gabriel is at his most experimental on “Intruder”. “ No Self-Control” continues the slightly depraved themes of the album, telling of a man unable to stop eating, sleeping, etc. The interesting marimba piano sounds drive the song, accompanied by mutilated guitars with heavy distortion. The chorus is quite poppy, but still experimental. It uses sample human voices, in a way that had not really been attempted before “3” in popular music. Interesting “mutant” pop.
“Start” is a very short instrumental that contains a nice sax solo, accompanied by lush synthesizers. “I Don’t Remember” then kicks into Gabriel’s signature 1980s sound; mechanical digital drums, deep effect-covered funk bass, and warbling vocals. The song was interesting, and is a sort of blueprint for Gabriel’s later and more commercial sound on albums such as “4” and “So”. The lyrics concern memory-loss, and shows Gabriel’s ability to manipulate lyrics to turn virtually any morose or perverse topic into a slick pop song. “Family Snapshot” is a quite slow piano-driven song. The slow and emotional piano chords soon turn into a guitar/sax Springsteen-like romper. The songs feel a tad disjointed, and the three different sections have a very different feel respectively. The lyrics are really quite melancholy, and Gabriel really has the ability to make even grown men cry. An interesting patch work of a song, but not a classic. “And Through The Wire” is a much more rollicking number. The phenomenal fretless bass work is moved along by a nice acoustic drum beat. The garage-like guitars show that although he was often were digital in terms of recording, Gabriel’s songs always find a way to incorporate some elements of non-digital recording and can be quite organic. The song is optimistic and hopeful like much of Gabriel’s work, suggesting that despite difficulties and restrictions in life (the metaphoric “Wire” here), we are able to overcome adversity. The song is easily Gabriel’s most Punk like song, although definitely not subscribing totally to that particular genre’s rules.
The album is perhaps best remembered for classic-rock radio staple “Games Without Frontiers”. I have always enjoyed this song, even if it does sound quite a bit like Phil Collins at times. The comparison to Collins comes from the use of Roland drum-machines, which Collins was also using at this, time. The siren-like guitars add a sense of death and destruction, and a nice thick and distorted bass provides a very low growl. Although dated, the synthesizers add a nice vintage feel to the song, and the middle portion of the song contains a section that could easily be considered among of the primary influences on the “Jungle” genre of electronic music that would gain popularity in the early 1990s. “Not One Of Us” continues Gabriel’s common exploration of xenophobia and exclusion. The song concerns the “us verses them” mentality, perhaps a reflection of the increasing political tensions in the world at the time. The song is very “New Wave”. using computer-samples atop a punk-like drums and mechanical bass lines. The song has a very paranoid feel to it, like most of the album. Gabriel’s exploration of cultural themes continues to the present-day, as I believe he is truly an anthropologist wrapped in the guise of a pop singer. “Lead A Normal Life” is a mostly-instrumental song that uses a few heavily manipulated vocal samples. Gentle pianos and marimba samples provide a very calming effect, and Gabriel adds a few sparse lines about what appears to be life in a mental health treatment facility. The song is calming, but also quite unsettling at times, with a heavily distorted minimalist middle section playing before fading away back into the calming marimba/piano instrumental. Tribal drums come in towards the end, and set us up for the album’s final track. Single “Biko” is a wonderfully inspiring tale of the human spirit. The song concerns Steve Biko, the murdered South African activist who died in a brutal prison beating during apartheid-era South Africa. The song is Gabriel’s first full-scale exploration of African music, and African choirs, grunts, and electronic-tribal drums really show a world music flair to the song. Funeral bagpipes provide a very somber feeling to the song, and it is hard to not be moved by this song and the sacrifice paid by Biko. Great song.
“3” is a strong contender for Gabriel’s best album. The album pushed forward the use of sampling, world music, and generally set the new bar for pop music in 1980. Countless imitators would try to replicate “3”, but all would fail. Like Gabriel himself, this album is a true original. Fantastic.
Rating-9.5/10
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