Album Preview: Peter Gabriel’s “Scratch My Back”
This week’s Album Preview is the latest from Peter Gabriel, which doesn’t even come out in stores until March 9 and features the artist reinterpreting songs by a diverse group…
By Rachel Reynolds • • 1 min readThis week’s Album Preview is the latest from Peter Gabriel, which doesn’t even come out in stores until March 9 and features the artist reinterpreting songs by a diverse group of artists.
On “Scratch My Back,” Gabriel brings his personal style and sonic imagination to twelve favorite songs that he performs with solely orchestral instruments and voice. The album is the first part of a series of “song exchanges” in which Gabriel and other leading artists reinterpret each other’s music. All the artists whose songs Gabriel has recorded here are returning the favor by each recording a song of his. The fruits of this exchange will be heard on a forthcoming companion volume, “I’ll Scratch Yours.”
The record opens with an utterly transformed version of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ and goes on to include versions of Paul Simon’s ‘The Boy in the Bubble,’ Elbow’s ‘Mirrorball,’ Arcade Fire’s ‘My Body Is A Cage’ and a soaring version of Bon Iver’s ‘Flume.’
RR