There are some artists that over saturated themselves. You know who those artists are (without naming names) that you wish would just disappear for a little bit and then come back strong. Elvis Presley made a career doing that thanks to his manager Col. Parker and his savvy business sense. One artist you can never accuse of over saturation is the often enigmatic, Peter Gabriel. After his most successful album to date, So, Gabriel took six years to deliver a follow-up and then ten more years after that. Peter Gabriel has always done it his own way. So it’s with great surprise to find a new album out just a year or so after his Scratch My Back covers album hit the shelves.
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Peter Gabriel | 
“New Blood (Special 2CD Edition)”
(Real World/Virgin)
Released October 11, 2011
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Of course neither of these releases are studio album of new compositions but it’s still nice to not wait another decade. Scratch My Back was an ambitious album of cover tunes that gave a whole new meaning to “less is more”. With its often bare bones orchestrated rendition, Gabriel showcased tunes by some of the greatest artist of our lifetime. New Blood takes the same orchestrated approach re-recording some of Gabriel’s greatest songs of his solo career.
If you caught him on tour, you got a taste of these re-worked tunes live. However, unlike the soon to be released New Blood – Live in London, this is a collection of studio versions. Perhaps it’s from playing the tunes live or the very fact they are his own creations, the songs on New Blood fair better then the covers he recorded on Scratch Your Back. There’s more feeling and more life in these recordings that had many fans, including the artists he covered on the album, unhappy with the final results.
New Blood is a nice balance of the minimalistic, that he first played with on Scratch My Back, yet here he is keeping the “meat” or “essence” of his classic tunes. The album touches several of Gabriel’s albums but in particularly focuses heavily on two, one commercial and one a fan favorite album.
Peter Gabriel’s 4th studio album, known to most as Security, dominates the first half of the album with “Rhythm Of The Heat,” “San Jacinto,” and “Wallflower.” Security is such a rich multi-layered album of tones and rhythm that work so well with the orchestration re-workings by arranger John Metcalfe. Metcalfe whom was his collaborator on Scratch My Back has proven himself even more so with his work here on New Blood.
So was arguably his most commercially successful album to date. On New Blood he offers up “In Your Eyes,” “Mercy Street,” “Red Rain” and “Don’t Give Up.” All tunes shine except maybe for the later track. Perhaps it’s the longing for Kate Bush to come back out of hiding that I find Ane Brun’s reading not as satisfying. Regardless, if you are able to get past the absence of Kate Bush the song holds up quite well in this re-working.
Later on the album, Gabriel does take a chance with one of his more pop driven songs and lets the string instruments do all the work to bring the funk. “Digging In The Dirt” has a nice urgency with the orchestra taking us to darker places. The single disc release concludes with the bouncy “Solsbury Hill,” that appeared on his solo debut back in 1977 and sounds very similar in tone to the original song.
Of course for the true Peter Gabriel fan you can purchase the Special 2CD Edition. This includes an additional CD of twelve instrumental orchestral versions of all of the songs found on disc one except “A Quiet Moment” and “Solsbury Hill.” To replace those we have “Blood of Eden” re-worked on the New Blood style and if you buy it on iTunes, you will also receive “Signal To Noise” reworked as well. The instrumentals are actually quite nice on their own and I am sad only that “Solsbury Hill” wasn’t included.
Peter Gabriel is an innovator and one never knows what he will do next. These two releases have proven this. Gabriel could have just releases a live album of the tour but instead chose to go back into the studio and give them a proper showcase. Let’s hope he stays in the studio and gets moving on all the original material he has been playing with since his last release of Up in 2002.
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