Peter Gabriel
Up

THE REVIEW

HOWEVER.

I've been closed in my thinking/defecating room for more than half an hour, attempting to download my intestines while waiting for yesterday's MP3.
A nice moment of contemplation, no doubt, usually bearing the usual crappy thoughts or, alternatively, pondering crap, a much more interesting and articulated subject.
Unfortunately for me, the connection is poor, the broadband of my butt is narrower than I imagined. Therefore, I help myself with whatever circulates within arm's length: books, magazines, brochures, abandoned receipts, puzzle weeklies... basically, everything adds to the broth for the hot soup I should be serving.

Under a pile of MARIECLAIRE, ESPRESSO, and WILD HEAPS, I glance at the Moroccan pirated copy of this album "UP" by Peter Gabriel purchased on a beach in Fregene in the winter of 2002 from a certain Jasef.
A record with a gestation of over 10 years (!), a "nocturnal work, sometimes even leaden, created with the attempt to channel an introverted existentialism into a formally impeccable and aesthetic song form, but also an album where excellent production sometimes compensates, or attempts to do so, for some compositional and inspirational shortcomings... a modern and timely record" (as reported by M. Chiusi on OndaRock). Considering these crappy times, I add (adhering to the theme), the album is quite pompous and tremendously "heavy" colored here and there with that slightly danceable rhythm, truly irritating, remnants of a rather widespread tendency among these almost 60-year-olds who play every card to attract a younger audience that, when asked "ever heard of Genesis?" respond "yes, I played it a few years ago, it was a SEGA video game, right?".
But beyond all that, the question that presses me most now is: WILL IT REALLY SUCK?

I try to load it on my i-pod and attempt a listen... "Darkness" not bad with that contrast between the piercing riff insert and the fake-calm of the rest of the song... mmhh... utility = zero. The following "Growing Up" is quite weak and dispensable with that silly and banal 4/4... nothing... the big urge is still missing, damn it... with "Sky Blue" we are in the classic "Gabriel-like" ballad where our guy throws together a sugary series of soul-like chords, laid over his typical charming and still charismatic voice... a 6-minute and 37-second ball with 45 seconds of a cappella ending... alright, but all in all nothing so significant for the task I set myself...

I take my eyes off for a moment on a brochure advertising a Bus Trip to Monterotondo with Padre Pio drawn, dressed as a driver, winking, all for just 19.90 euros... indeed, my stomach has a half-jolt... I look at the little brochure without attention because by now curiosity about this UP has made me impatient... I press PLAY on the i-pod again.

"No Way Out"... still this fake-lounge background from a 3rd millennium piano bar... boring and soporific at just the right point... no chord variations, one tonality, practically one spilled note for almost 8 minutes... I move on with "I Grieve"... same diffused and foggy atmosphere, muffled rhythms, funereal pace for 6 minutes then late drum insertion!!... yet the stomach holds... calm seas on that front... the album is passable and I can still hold back the bulk of the issue. Damn!!
Even the next track "The Barry Williams Show" half funky and catchy (not by chance the flagship single) is not much help... it is pleasantly listened to without giving me that shockwave I seek. Did I perhaps choose the wrong album? I start to suspect it...

With "My Head Sounds Like That" we return to a state of drowsiness... I rest my chin on the bathtub and begin to nap sitting on the toilet... I wake up to the next "More Than This" as banal as ever and quite hideous... and indeed... ZAP: finally the belly reacts and I feel a slow stir of dark presences in revolt in my deep being!! ABOUT TIME, I say to myself and let the track play in its entirety...
I move immediately to "Signal To Noise" with world music openings (so dear to the now bald archangel)... well, not bad... it might be the presence of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's voice that enlivens and embellishes it all, in short, a decent piece although too orchestral in the finale but in the meantime, my stomach locks up again... nothing to do... everything wrong, everything to redo!!
For what I need, I need crappier music and this, all in all, is not as hideous as I expected: boring yes, but hideous would be unfair!

I close this CD in the acetate cover still scratched by the sand, disappointed but in the end also happy I didn't completely bury my youth idol and thus decide to play it safe: desperate times call for desperate measures!
I take a yellowed copy of the Libero newspaper that I keep hidden here for big occasions.
The time it takes to read the headline and the three side articles and my body starts working like a Swiss clock again.
Ahh, it's just right to get certain satisfactions... the ultimate would be once a day!! : -)))