Pater Gabriel - Scratch my back (Hires)
Posted by: P.Bonte on 14 February 2010
Hi,
All the good you heard about his new release is TRUE !
As a bonus, you get a voucher for Hires 96/xx download - unfortunately only from March 2nd onward (must be the release date in some countries but not in mine
)
Philippe
All the good you heard about his new release is TRUE !
As a bonus, you get a voucher for Hires 96/xx download - unfortunately only from March 2nd onward (must be the release date in some countries but not in mine
)Philippe
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by scottyhammer
P,
I was going to overlook this one as i thought that it was just an album of covers.
Can you explain in more detail whats good about it please.
Regards, Scotty
I was going to overlook this one as i thought that it was just an album of covers.
Can you explain in more detail whats good about it please.
Regards, Scotty
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by BigH47
I thought it pretty tedious on my one listen, one comment on the following blog said"cheer up Peter", sums it up I think.
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by oldneil
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by P.Bonte
Forgot to tell you that I like depressing music 
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by P.Bonte
Scotty,
Mostly voice and some instruments, calm, original interpretation of known music. Even though I appreciate a lot his experimentation and "world" music, refreshing to concentrate on the voice.
Philippe
Mostly voice and some instruments, calm, original interpretation of known music. Even though I appreciate a lot his experimentation and "world" music, refreshing to concentrate on the voice.
Philippe
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by scottyhammer
Will give it a try before i buy
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by gone
quote:Originally posted by P.Bonte:
All the good you heard about his new release is TRUE !
but the reviews are very mixed - I will probably wait until the hi-res is available, and even then...
The S. Times review was not very inspiring last week. But then, reviews aren't everything I suppose. PG would normally be an automatic purchase for me, but there are other things on my shopping list right now
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by Lontano
Reviews are mixed but on balance I have seen more positive - lots of 4 star reviews out there. Observer did not like it today though but at the end of the day it is only an opinion.
I have been giving this a closer listen today and it really is very good IMHO. Perfect mood music, late night listening. This is a grower. I have always loved Gabriel's wonderful, warm textured voice and it shines through superbly on this.
The other things about the covers is that not too many of these are well known songs so for many this will be a case of listening to some of these tracks for the first time. Therefore to me it does not feel like I know the songs before I have heard them.
This is a good review, and just their opinion, from the BBC.
"It feels so unnatural / to sing your own name," sang Peter Gabriel last year, lending his voice to Hot Chip's cover of Vampire Weekend's Gabriel name-checking Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. The point seems to have extended to singing his own songs, as he starts the new decade with a collection of beautifully recorded covers that renege on guitars and drums in favour of an orchestra arranged by The Durutti Column's John Metcalfe. Indeed, the ads for Gabriel's two nights at the 02 boast "No guitars! No drums!"
It seems he doesn't need them – the results here are stunning.
Scratch My Back is the first offering of a two-part project. The second will be released later in the year and, as you might have guessed, will be called I'll Scratch Yours. On it, the artists featured here will return the favour on Gabriel tracks. It's a pop swap shop.
The result of this is that many songs here, like Elbow's Mirrorball, are fairly modern, and Gabriel rarely dips into the obvious rock canon (Heroes aside). And the sparseness of the arrangements around the singer’s tender vocals makes this a thing of beauty. During the chorus of Bon Iver's Flume he sounds close to tears as he wrings the words out. On Paul Simon's The Boy in the Bubble – originally an upbeat song – Gabriel takes the lyrical juxtaposition of poverty/modernity and milks the sadness that Simon had hidden.
Metcalfe's arrangements are stunning, too – they mirror Gabriel's mix of whispers and howls on Arcade Fire's My Body Is a Cage and create a sense of loved-up optimism on the best track here, a woozy take on The Magnetic Fields' The Book of Love. They make everything sound movie-score epic – not too surprising given Gabriel's recent work on Wall-E and Rabbit Proof Fence. It also makes certain that's there's plenty to discover in each track even if, as is the case with songs like Street Spirit, you've heard them thousands of times in their original form.
The pop world has finally caught up with the WOMAD-founder's open-minded approach to music from near and far and, as such, it's surprising, fitting and pleasing that one of the most essential albums of early 2010 is his. Wonderful.
I have been giving this a closer listen today and it really is very good IMHO. Perfect mood music, late night listening. This is a grower. I have always loved Gabriel's wonderful, warm textured voice and it shines through superbly on this.
The other things about the covers is that not too many of these are well known songs so for many this will be a case of listening to some of these tracks for the first time. Therefore to me it does not feel like I know the songs before I have heard them.
This is a good review, and just their opinion, from the BBC.
"It feels so unnatural / to sing your own name," sang Peter Gabriel last year, lending his voice to Hot Chip's cover of Vampire Weekend's Gabriel name-checking Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa. The point seems to have extended to singing his own songs, as he starts the new decade with a collection of beautifully recorded covers that renege on guitars and drums in favour of an orchestra arranged by The Durutti Column's John Metcalfe. Indeed, the ads for Gabriel's two nights at the 02 boast "No guitars! No drums!"
It seems he doesn't need them – the results here are stunning.
Scratch My Back is the first offering of a two-part project. The second will be released later in the year and, as you might have guessed, will be called I'll Scratch Yours. On it, the artists featured here will return the favour on Gabriel tracks. It's a pop swap shop.
The result of this is that many songs here, like Elbow's Mirrorball, are fairly modern, and Gabriel rarely dips into the obvious rock canon (Heroes aside). And the sparseness of the arrangements around the singer’s tender vocals makes this a thing of beauty. During the chorus of Bon Iver's Flume he sounds close to tears as he wrings the words out. On Paul Simon's The Boy in the Bubble – originally an upbeat song – Gabriel takes the lyrical juxtaposition of poverty/modernity and milks the sadness that Simon had hidden.
Metcalfe's arrangements are stunning, too – they mirror Gabriel's mix of whispers and howls on Arcade Fire's My Body Is a Cage and create a sense of loved-up optimism on the best track here, a woozy take on The Magnetic Fields' The Book of Love. They make everything sound movie-score epic – not too surprising given Gabriel's recent work on Wall-E and Rabbit Proof Fence. It also makes certain that's there's plenty to discover in each track even if, as is the case with songs like Street Spirit, you've heard them thousands of times in their original form.
The pop world has finally caught up with the WOMAD-founder's open-minded approach to music from near and far and, as such, it's surprising, fitting and pleasing that one of the most essential albums of early 2010 is his. Wonderful.
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by ft-o8
I buy the album on last friday and I hear this 7 or 8 times ever and ever.
This album is a very subtil work.
Not for every day and not for danceteapartys but for a long strong german winterday.
This album is a very subtil work.
Not for every day and not for danceteapartys but for a long strong german winterday.
Posted on: 14 February 2010 by P.Bonte
And if the inclusion of a voucher for Hires becomes a trend, then 96/xx is really getting mainstream !
Posted on: 16 February 2010 by gone
Can you confirm the resolution of the download? The website seems to say it's 24bit 48kHz, which is a bit of a shame?
Posted on: 16 February 2010 by nap-ster
The voucher is only in the Special Edition two disc version and not the standard one disc.
Posted on: 17 February 2010 by P.Bonte
Will post as soon as I can get the download (March)