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Peter Gabriel is part of that select group of artists who always try to reinvent themselves and never to be just for themselves. I would dare to use an adjective: "Chameleon", a title that few deserve (among them also the White Duke David Bowie and the King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp). Yet this album I'm about to review, "New Blood", has raised some eyebrows among early fans, those who grew up with the apocalyptic prophecies of "Here Comes the Flood" or the committed songs of "Biko". However, even though the album draws on already published songs or tracks that have been important milestones in our Archangel's musical journey, it comes across as something new. The musical project, based exclusively on an orchestral foundation that includes no typical rock instruments, makes the sound dark and steeped in black, like a journey where you know where you start but not where you’ll end up. Moreover, it is a project whose foundations are original and well-grounded, so much so that it doesn't make us miss any electric guitar, bass, or drums.
For this reason, the pounding "The Rhythm Of The Heat", which was fully based on African drums and percussion, takes on a different pathos, while "Red Rain" becomes much stronger from an emotional standpoint, even though it loses some of its epic quality. The dear old "Don't Give Up" doesn't make us miss Kate Bush much, and "San Jacinto" loses its electronic intro in favor of a light and calm piano introduction, "Intruder" softens the screams and makes them more angelic and less aggressive. A new blood (if we want to recall the title of the work) flows gracefully from one song to another, as if it were a river rich with new emotions, novelties, and a guise that seems harder to assemble and dress Peter in (who nearly forty years ago let his expressive and warm voice flow over the notes of progressive suites like "Supper's Ready" or "The Cinema Show") but which we gradually see narrowing until everything appears as it is, that is, wonderfully magical and surprising.
And so, inserting the CD (or spinning the LP for nostalgic vinyl lovers), which features a black cover with a green core at the center emitting a blue beam of light, we will find ourselves in "a quiet moment", among the chirping of birds and sounds of plants and trees, right there where it all began, on "Solsbury Hill" that we have cherished so much and which seems so close in time, that track with which Gabriel bid farewell to Genesis and launched his solo career that, six decades later, still amazes us.
Well done Peter, once again you've hit the mark.
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