The last time we published a review of an album by Peter Gabriel (with new songs) in this newspaper was in 2002, and that’s because it actually took the artist more than two decades to give us a successor to his Up I album. /O is finally among us and shows us a very recognizable Gabriel, with all his art-rock sound architecture, his industrial creaking dynamics and orchestrated lyricism, and his philosophical background around the dialogue of being human with oneself and with humanity. planet.
Memories in the cloud
This is the point pointed out by the title, which refers to the input/output duality, inputs and outputs of electronic devices; It invites us to think that we live in permanent interaction and are part of a fabric larger than ourselves. The opening song, Panopticom, puts us in this situation and warns us that, given humanity’s power to self-destruct, we must be alert to changes in the natural environment. This track is fat, from the nineties, with a distinctive chorus and crushing sound. The album’s instrumentalists center around the usual giants David Rhodes, Tony Levin and Manu Katché (and a reimagined Brian Eno).
These twelve songs, released one by one since last January, have now come together again to complete their meaning. When Gabriel started working on these, there were neither social networks nor smartphones, but the album tells us about our time and is full of questions. A certain anxiety about the time and memories we now store in a mobile app (among tribal rhythms, as Court noted). And, due to the nature of memory, we now perhaps only live to “make time,” as the glorious Playing for Time suggests.
On I/O Peter Gabriel takes the tension between transcendental musings and the idea of a song that is still pop to the extreme; The 73-year-old man’s thoughts are open to the future, accompanied by melodies wrapped in very detailed atmospheres. manageable melody and rhythmic attack. There’s the funk of Road to Joy (and Olive Tree), close to ’80s Phil Collins, although it’s worrying here.
Deep in the album, verses inspired by the perverted use of religions, the end of our human condition, and death intersect with tracks where light enters: Love Can Heal and Live, with a foundation of San Jacinto-style synthesizers, and Keep Alive on the exciting final track, where it launches into the bold proposal of collective forgiveness that will save us from our sorrows. Successful or not, what remains is this awakened and mature work, oblivious to musical trends, an island of style in itself, yet devoted to the vast catalog of earthly suffering.
Source: Informacion
Brandon Hall is an author at “Social Bites”. He is a cultural aficionado who writes about the latest news and developments in the world of art, literature, music, and more. With a passion for the arts and a deep understanding of cultural trends, Brandon provides engaging and thought-provoking articles that keep his readers informed and up-to-date on the latest happenings in the cultural world.