Peter Gabriel - New Blood
Genre: Progressive/Neo Classical
Rating: 6/10
Peter Gabriel returns this year following up last years cover album Scratch My Back with New Blood. Gabriel's initial plans were to have each band that he covered on Scratch My Back cover one of his songs for a second LP entitled I'll Scratch Yours unfortunately this project still hasn't come to fruition yet but according to the liner notes in New Blood work is still underway. New Blood is a collection of various Peter Gabriel tracks from throughout his career that he has himself reinterpretated and presented in the same style as Scratch My Back which was a purely a neo-classical affair composed entirely of orchestral backing and piano pieces. Gabriel has strived relentlessly to avoid using conventional rock instruments like drum kits and guitars throughout and rather than turning New Blood into a reimagined best of he has also chosen a mixture of tracks that incorporates his less famous material.
The albums overall feel is easily likened to Scratch My Back with it's lush orchestration providing a wide range of emotion and depth. Peter's vocals seem to have aged well as his vocal range still manages to hit the almost subsonic of his early career whilst also at times sounding weathered and grizzled where necessary. The moods are a lot more diverse though which is of benefit to the record as for all its graceful sombre moods many criticised Scratch My Back as too depressing. The rich orchestration helps build a sense of drama in places and also paints a beautifully serene soundscape in others. The main overall hindrance to this record is solely based on the tracklist. Whilst more interesting than just choosing his hits some of the tracks do suffer from reworking most notably tracks like "Digging In The Dirt" which is nowhere near as powerful without its guitar backing. Most of the more well known tracks don't do much better and often you wonder why tracks like the classic "Solsbury Hill" needed reworking in the first place. This fact itself is not lost on Gabriel as he only included the aforementioned "Solsbury Hill" to stop the countless requests from salivating fans. Another flaw is the use of backup singers, whilst theres nothing wrong with back up singers contributing to tracks Gabriel seems to allow them in some places to run riot and I'm pretty sure you bought a Peter Gabriel record to hear the man himself sing. Whilst the record is flawed in places in other areas it shines opener "The Rhythm Of The Heat" has a positively electric atmosphere and the powerful orchestra that slowly builds in the background proves a worthy rework of an already under rated track. Other highlights include the dramatic reinvigorated "Red Rain" which sees tension build to new highs as the string section abruptly stabs away at the tune. The main issue with New Blood is really just inconsistency an issue that dogs many progressive artists.
Overall New Blood isn't exactly Gabriel's most accomplished work to date. Whilst some of his choices for reinterpretation breathe new life into the songs there is a lot of material here that was best left the way it was. Whilst the album isn't great its not a huge disappointment either, its inconsistency levelling it out as an average release. It's probably advisable to try before you buy with New Blood.
Download: "The Rhytm Of The Heat" "Red Rain"
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