Your favorite PETER GABRIEL solo albums

1st Official Post
    • Official Post

    Your favorite PETER GABRIEL solo albums are ... (pick three) 65

    1. III (Melt) (39) 60%
    2. IV (Security) (29) 45%
    3. So (29) 45%
    4. US (26) 40%
    5. UP (17) 26%
    6. Passion (Soundtrack) (12) 18%
    7. I (Car) (11) 17%
    8. II (Scratch) (7) 11%
    9. i/o (6) 9%
    10. Scratch My Back (4) 6%
    11. OVO (1) 2%
    12. New Blood (1) 2%
    13. Birdy (Soundtrack) (0) 0%
    14. Long Walk Home (Soundtrack) (0) 0%
    15. Rated PG (0) 0%

    Just like the Genesis poll, let's find our which Peter Gabriel albums are your favorites.


    You can pick three albums in this poll.

    Quote from FirthOfFifth

    Car is in my top 5 prog albums ever. Absolutely love everything about it !

    I listened to it recently for the first time in quite a while. There's not much on there that I like but I found the dynamics of Down The Dolce Vita to be absolutely breathtaking. I also love Here Comes The Flood although I believe that Peter Gabriel never liked the arrangement, much preferring a more lowkey approach.

    • Official Post

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    Car, Scratch and Melt. They all came out during an important phase of my life, so they edge out So and Up.


    Oddly enough Security (which at this moment is leading the poll) left me cold, and still does. I don't dislike it but, apart from Shock the Monkey, it just doesn't have anything on it that excites me in the same way that all his other albums do.

    • Official Post

    Melt and Passion and New Blood.


    Car and Scratch have good songs, but they are not really Gabriel yet. Security is a bit of a rehash of Melt. So has Red Rain falling down, Red Rain.... urgh. Birdy is utterly boring. I find Us and Up over-produced. Ovo was really cool at the Millennium Dome show, but most songs are a bit dated. Long Walk Home is another album I like to listen to, but the music works much better in the film than on its own. Scratch My Back I like much better now than when it came out (guess you can see that in my part of the review), but I don't listen to it much anymore.


    New Blood - because of the great arrangements, especially on The Rhythm Of The Heat. These songs sound familiar yet new, fresh, from a different angle.

    Melt is the first album where the music Peter makes is really his music the way he wants it to be, with an almost flawless selection of songs.

    The music on Passion really moves me. This is a seriously overlooked album of fantastic music, from The Feeling Begins to Bread And Wine. Passion is the one album from the whole Genesis cosmos that I could call inspired.

    Quote from martinus

    I find Us and Up over-produced.

    Yes, he does have a tendency to overdo things to the point where the spirit of the song is in danger of being lost. Sky Blue, my favourite song from UP, was in gestation for over ten years. It does not take ten years to make a song!

    Quote from StillCan'tDance

    Yes, he does have a tendency to overdo things to the point where the spirit of the song is in danger of being lost. Sky Blue, my favourite song from UP, was in gestation for over ten years. It does not take ten years to make a song!

    Everything with Peter Gabriel takes a long time

    “Without music, life would be a mistake”

    • Official Post
    Quote from StillCan'tDance

    Yes, he does have a tendency to overdo things to the point where the spirit of the song is in danger of being lost. Sky Blue, my favourite song from UP, was in gestation for over ten years. It does not take ten years to make a song!

    Especially when he then releases it several times over (Sky Blue, Cloudless).

    Someone should have forced him to compare an "early almost finished version" with what he considers the final version. I wonder what the songs on UP and US would have sounded like then.

    I've always had a soft spot for Scratch. Admittedly, my feelings are bolstered by the fact it came out the same year I discovered Genesis, and in addition to exploring their back catalogue at that time, I was unearthing the works of former members.

    Scratch was my introduction to Gabriel's solo work during this magical period of musical discovery, and so whenever I play this album I not only take pleasure in the music but in the memories it generates.


    It remains a Top 3 album for me, along with 3 and 4.