CC00033: Peter Gabriel

Submitted by lbangs on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:25
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  • So (9.5)
  • Peter Gabriel [3] (9)
  • Security (8)
  • Passion (8)
  • Peter Gabriel [1] (7.5)
  • Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats (7)
  • Us (7)
  • Secret World Live (6)
  • Plays Live (5.5)
  • Birdy (5.5)
  • Peter Gabriel [2] (5)
Author Comments: 

This is an entry in a continuing series I call Critical Consensus. I am averaging the opinions of several excellent music critics to produce a list of each artist's albums. The albums will each have a rating between 1 and 10. The albums will be listed in a recommended purchasing order, so new fans will have an idea of where the best place to start buying an artist's work is. These are not my opinions, although, since I have chosen the critics used (and I'm using many), my taste will perhaps seep through a bit.

Terribly nerdy, I know, but maybe this will help people only now beginning to dabble into certain artists' bodies of work.

jim06/30/2000

I'm surprised Us fared so poorly (relatively). From this list, I've only heard Us, So, Security, Passion, and Shaking the Tree, and I'd personally have a very hard time ranking them in any kind of order. But if forced to, I'd have to go with:


  1. Us
  2. So
  3. Passion
  4. Security


I wouldn't count Shaking the Tree. As much as I enjoy the new song and remixes, I don't think there's enough new material on it to keep it from being a "Greatest Hits" album (albeit my favorite GH album). Do you have a CC policy regarding GH albums?

lbangs06/30/2000

I gather that Us and So would have fared better if this list was put together a few years ago. A few older sources I consulted definitely held Garbriel's work in higher esteem than current critics. These critical trends go up and down, and it is very frustrating when a favorite artist is on the way down. Blur, one of my favorites, is currently suffering a similar fate. Hopefully, both artists will bottom out and begin to rise soon.

If I can gather enough critical input about a greatest hits album, I include it. This usually limits compilations to either famous or important collections or best-ofs currently in print. Since Shaking the Tree is (I believe) Gabriel's only compilation and is still in print, I was able to find plenty of opinions on it; I included it on the list.

I'm going to have to hear Passion. While some critics found it poor, many others (particularly European critics) cited it as a favorite.

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs