Originally released in 1980. Remastered in 2002.
Peter Gabriel’s third eponymous album finds him crafting work that's
artier, stronger, more song oriented than before. Consider its ominous
opener, the controlled menace of “Intruder.” He's never found such a
scary sound, yet it's a sexy scare, one that is undeniably alluring, and he
keeps this going throughout the record. For an album so popular, it's
remarkably bleak, chilly, and dark, even radio favorites like “I Don't
Remember” and “Games Without Frontiers” are hardly cheerful, spiked
with paranoia and suspicion, insulated in introspection. For the first time,
Gabriel has found the sound to match his themes, plus the songs to
articulate his themes. Each aspect of the album works, feeding off each
other, creating a romantically gloomy, appealingly arty masterpiece. It's
the kind of record where you remember the details in the production as
much as the hooks or the songs, which isn't to say that it's all surface,
it's just that the surface means as much as the songs, since it articulates
the emotions as well as Gabriel's cubist lyrics and impassioned voice.
He wound up having albums that sold more, or generated bigger hits,
but this third Peter Gabriel album remains a masterpiece.