 or  iTunes Price: $9.99 Genre: Rock Released: Mar 02, 2010 Customer Ratings (88 Ratings)
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View More By Peter Gabriel Our ReviewAs always, even Peter Gabriel’s album of covers is conceptual. This isn’t just a collection of 12 covers, six from established veterans (David Bowie, Randy Newman, Neil Young) and six from newer artists (Radiohead, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, etc.), but there’s to be a companion piece entitled I’ll Scratch Yours that features those artists covering Peter Gabriel songs. Gabriel slows everything down to a muted trickle. Paul Simon’s “The Boy In the Bubble” has its buoyant bounce removed leaving just piano and strings. David Bowie’s “Heroes” crawls with its sense of glam replaced by an end- of-the-world-solemnity. Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” comes close to the original recording, but that’s about it. Bon Iver’s “Flume,” Magnetic Fields’ “The Book of Love,” Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage” sound more like modern classical pieces with orchestral arrangements filling the soundstage. It’s a brilliant, somber move by a man known for his great theatrics. The “Special Edition” features three remixes and a cover of Ray Davies and the Kinks’ classic “Waterloo Sunset” given the Gabriel twist.. Customer ReviewsBrilliant and odd (4 stars)An orchestral covers album from an aging prog rocker? Not surprisingly, "Scratch My Back" is, by turns, brilliant and odd. It's a sparse, stark, elegiac album of minimalist compositions that deliberately takes the listener out of his comfort zone. With Peter's cracked, soulful vocals hanging on John Metcalfe's sharp, aural landscapes, "Back" wears its concept like a fragile exoskeleton. It's a mournful and sometimes-thril A Lush, Exquisite, and Expansive Album of Cover Songs (5 stars) SCRATCH MY BACK is truly an album that has exceeded my expectations. This is a work that will be listened to over and again for many a moon. Yes, these are cover songs, but Gabriel brings something new to each and every one, and has asked the artists and bands whose song he covers on this album to each cover one of his songs (that's why there are two double A-sides out as singles now, including Paul Simon's cover track of Gabriel's "Bik Re-interpreting songs, not covering them. (4 stars) When I hear of a cover album, I groan and assume that an artist owes an album company one more recording to get out of a contract. This would have greatly surprised me with Peter Gabriel. Peter Gabriel, much like David Bowie whose Heroes is the first track on this collection, has never been one to remain comfortable with one image. Other reviewers have referred to him as a prog rocker. Yes, once upon a time he was. Then he had success w BiographyBorn: February 13, 1950 in London, EnglandGenre: Rock Years Active: '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s As the leader of Genesis in the early '70s, Peter Gabriel helped move progressive rock to new levels of theatricality. He was no less ambitious as a solo artist, but he was more subtle in his methods. With his first eponymous solo album in 1977, he began exploring darker, more cerebral territory, incorporating avant-garde, electronic, and worldbeat influences into his music. The record, as well as its two similarly titled successors, established Gabriel as a critically acclaimed cult artist, and...
View More By Peter Gabriel
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