Peter Gabriel is an example of an artist that I fully respected for his 80s catalog yet never used my hard earned spending cabbage to actually purchase one of his albums.  His videos were often quirky yet oddly arresting and the songs catchy but there were other artists that had captured my attention moreso during that period.  It wasn’t until the 90s that I eventually picked up his Shaking The Tree collection, which piqued my interest in the non-hits and prompted me to investigate his other material and eventually led me to his (at the time) fairly recently released US album.

US is a warm, musically rich release featuring a broad batch of material stretching from bouncy pop/R&B, world music, gospel, progressive/atmospheric, trip hop, and rock across its ten songs.  Written during a period after a failed marriage and rocky relationships, Gabriel walks the line between generating feel good tunes similar to what was on his commercial breakthrough So (“Kiss That Frog”, “Steam”) and more emotionally raw material of various strains (“Come Talk To Me”, “Love To Be Loved”, “Secret World”) that offers up more of an insight into Gabriel’s personal psyche than past material.  In some ways the focus is a little uneven and scattered possibly due to record company interference in wanting another “Sledgehammer”, yet with another excellent production job from Daniel Lanois and Gabriel’s naked emotions on display mixed with a raft of other adventurous material makes US #5 on my favorite albums of the 90s.

The years between So and US found Gabriel delving deep into world music, coming to fruition in the album Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ and eventually spilling over into some cuts on US.  Intro track “Come Talk To Me” kicks off with a beautiful introductory blast of bagpipes and features Sengalese sabar drumming, Asian/Middle Eastern woodwinds, and a magical mix of Gabriel lead vocal and backups from Sinead O’Connor and Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble.  Other experimentations show up in second track “Love To Be Loved”, propelled by Indian percussion and deep bass grooves from Tony Levin; the slinky, sexy propulsion of “Digging In The Dirt”‘s darker instrumentation and vocal light and shade; and adventurous keyboard interplay with duduk and African percussion in the mesmerizing “Fourteen Black Paintings”.  Gabriel’s ability to weave various instrumentation into the mix along with his unique vocal stylings makes his music such a rewarding listen, and on US he hits on another winning album.

Last comment on this album revolves more around the aforementioned “vocal stylings”:  on US Gabriel’s vocals are a bit more understated and vulnerable which offers up more of a soulful vibe in comparison with his earlier solo material and almost diametrically opposed to the energetic display on his Genesis records.  Cuts like the aforementioned “Come Talk To Me” and “Blood Of Eden” show a man in tune with a different musical ambiance than previous records, almost a bit world weary and defeated but still with enough hope that things will be better.  The raw emotion and honesty in “Washing Of The Water” is a perfect example- starting off with subtle percussive and string arrangements, Gabriel sinks deep into the song, singing mostly in an almost melancholy lower register during the intro and eventually into a beautifully moving higher section before reaching a crescendo with a bit of naked power during the “Letting go…” verse near the conclusion of the song.  Lyrically, this song is as real as it gets-  the pain that can occur in a broken relationship; not just personal pain but the pain that the person may have caused to a loved one.  A swirling, beautiful mass of emotions sung with much depth.

While US as a whole may be slightly uneven the positives absolutely outweigh any negatives that may be foreseen.  Peel away the bouncier cuts and delve deep into the lavish instrumentation and heartfelt sentiments of the lyrics and vocals in this deeply personal album and you will be rewarded greatly.  A highly underrated Peter Gabriel release.