The Guardian are saying that the new Peter Gabriel album i/o is a late career masterpiece. I've listened to the record and it's good / great in my opinion, but it's still difficult to know how to respond. When it comes to a legacy artist like Gabriel, these days things could generally go one of two ways but will probably land somewhere in the middle. An artist like him is either going to produce a work of absolute genius like Bowie's last few. Incredibly strong like Eno and Cale's recent stuff. Or negligible piffle like artists I won't name to spare them embarrassment.
Gabriel has always struck me as a reasonably sensible fellow. Even when he was running round dressed as a fox or a daffodil during his Genesis days. He's been a pretty consistent artist too over more than 50 years of putting out records.
i/o, his first for five tears is no exception. It's a pretty good record. Good tunes, fine lyrics, some sobbing in the stalls from lifetime fans.
I've liked a lot of stuff Gabriel has come out with down the years with Genesis and under his own steam. I bought and liked a couple of albums without ever nailing them to my record player.
I've given the record a few plays now and suspect that a number of long term fans will be throwing their hands up and claiming this as a classic. I'll leave that to others, not particularly having a strong personal investment in the man myself.. It's certainly a more than respectable effort which gets better to my ears every time I play it.
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