Commit suicide to the new Peter Gabriel covers record

I believe I’ve mentioned it before, but I love Peter Gabriel. He has that slightly looney, Syd Barrett spirit to him, but also manages to be a functional member of society. Private, but he’s not locking himself up in his house or anything. Concerned about world affairs, but hasn’t yet thrown a shoe at any world leaders.

The last thing I remember him doing was that cute, uplifting song for Wall-E, so imagine my excitement at hearing he’d be releasing new material this year! Then cut that excitement in half when I heard it was to be an album of covers. Slice it yet again when I read it was to be followed by another record with the musicians he’s covering covering him. After actually listening to it, my excitement entered fractions of imaginary numbers that only a mathemagician could sort out for you.

It’s not that the idea of a covers record by Peter Gabriel is so awful at face value. He’s a creative guy, I’m certain he could have really done something interesting with a lot of these songs. Instead, he’s turned all of them – regardless of their original nature – into funeral dirges. There’s no variety of sound whatsoever, save for one blissful moment during his cover of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ when he actually allows the song to be its uplifting self.

The best part comes somewhere around the halfway mark in ‘Street Spirit’, where Peter either enters the throes of death or has an incredibly disturbing orgasm. I couldn’t quite make up my mind which one I was most comfortable with. As my friend Casey pointed out on his Tumblr, it has all the crazy panache of a William Shatner cover, except I suspect Peter Gabriel is woefully serious about the whole thing.

I will give him this – it’s quite an accomplishment to make a Radiohead song more depressing than it already was. Of course, I think the real difference is that while Radiohead’s original is a very sad song, it’s also very beautiful. Peter Gabriel’s is depressing and ugly. If I want to feel miserable I’ll rent a Lars Von Trier film, thank you very much Peter.

Tags: arcade fire, peter gabriel, radiohead