Peter Gabriel Retrospective: Album 06- Us

 

The sixth solo album by Peter Gabriel- more personal than his previous albums.

Album:  Us

Year Released:    1992

Lineup (numbers are the tracks in order):  

• Peter Gabriel – vocals (all tracks), keyboards (all tracks), triangle (track 1), programming (tracks 1, 2, 7–10), synth bass (tracks 1, 3, 7, 9, 10), percussion (tracks 2, 4, 9), valiha (track 2), horn arrangement (track 4), harmonica (track 9), Mexican flute (track 10)
• Tony Levin – bass guitar (tracks 1–7 and 10)
• David Rhodes – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7–10), twelve-string guitar (track 3), solo guitar (track 4)
• Manu Katché – drums (tracks 1, 6, 7), electric drums (tracks 2, 4, 5, 10), percussion (track 10)
• The Babacar Faye Drummers – sabar drums (tracks 1 and 4)
• Doudou N'Diaye Rose – programming (tracks 1 and 10)
• David Bottrill – programming (tracks 1–4, 7, 10), additional programming (tracks 5 and 9), studio engineer
• Chris Ormston – bagpipes (track 1)
• Daniel Lanois – shaker (track 1), guitar (tracks 1, 10), additional vocals (track 1), hi-hat (track 3), vocals (track 3), horn arrangements (track 4), Dobro (tracks 8, 10)
• Richard Blair – additional verse keyboards (track 1), programming (tracks 4, 5, 7, 9), additional programming (tracks 2, 3)
• Levon Minassian – duduk (tracks 1, 3, 8)
• Sinéad O'Connor – vocals (tracks 1, 3)
• Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble – vocals (track 1)
• Hossam Ramzy – tabla (track 2), surdo (track 7)
• Daryl Johnson – drums (track 2)
• William Orbit – programming (track 2), additional programming (track 5)
• Bill Dillon – guitar (tracks 2, 5)
• Mark Rivera – alto saxophone (tracks 4, 6)
• Brian Eno – additional keyboards (track 2)
• L. Shankar – violin (tracks 2, 3, 5, 8)
• Caroline Lavelle – cello (tracks 2, 6, 10), string arrangement (track 2)
• Wil Malone – string arrangement (track 2, 6)
• Jonny Dollar – string arrangement (track 2, 6)
• Richard Evans – additional engineering (track 2), mix engineer (track 8), mandolin (track 8)
• Gus Isidore – bridge guitar (track 3)
• Richard Chappell – bridge section mix (track 3)
• Leo Nocentelli – guitar (tracks 4, 7)
• Tim Green – tenor saxophone (tracks 4, 6)
• Reggie Houston – baritone saxophone (tracks 4, 6)
• Renard Poché – trombone (tracks 4, 6)
• Wayne Jackson – trumpet (track 4), cornet (track 6)
• Kudsi Erguner – ney flute (track 5), shaker (track 4)
• Ayub Ogada – vocals (track 5, 7)
• Malcolm Burn – horn arrangement (track 6), additional synth cello (track 10), additional production ideas (track 10)
• Mark Howard – horns recording (track 6)
• Babacar Faye – djembe (tracks 7, 8)
• Assane Thiam – tama (track 7), talking drum (track 8)
• Peter Hammill – vocals (track 7)
• Richard Macphail – vocals (track 7)
• John Paul Jones – surdo (track 8), bass (track 8), keyboards (track 8)
• Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble – additional percussion loop (track 9)
• Manny Elias – Senegalese shakers (track 9)
• Marilyn McFarlane – vocals (track 9)

Track listing:

1. "Come Talk to Me" (with Sinéad O'Connor) 7:06

2. "Love to Be Loved" 5:18

3. "Blood of Eden" (with Sinéad O'Connor) 6:38

4. "Steam" 6:03

5. "Only Us" 6:30

6. "Washing of the Water" 3:52

7. "Digging in the Dirt" 5:18

8. "Fourteen Black Paintings" 4:38

9. "Kiss That Frog" 5:20

10. "Secret World" 7:03

Overall Thoughts:

Following the success of So, Peter Gabriel took some time (6 years) before releasing his next studio album.  During that time, he created one movie soundtrack (Passion, the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ), started a recording studio (Real World Studios), and was divorced.   

Us (Gabriel continued his trend of using very short names for album titles) is a more personal, introspective album.  The first song ("Come Talk to Me") is about the growing distance between himself and his teenage daughter.  That song, along with "Blood of Eden", featured singing by Sinead O'Connor

Gabriel used technology to push the boundaries of his albums.  By 1992, CDs had replaced albums- and Gabriel took advantage, increasing the total time on the album from 46 minutes to 58 minutes.  At times, it's to his disadvantage (For "Steam", the video overshadows the song).  For a personal, introspective album, it's disjarring- there's a lot of 'bells and whistles' on the album.  I'd be curious to hear a stripped down acoustic version of these songs.

Us has good songs and is a deep album.  It doesn't reach the heights of So, and there are times that the songs are too busy, but it's an excellent followup.

Ranking of Peter Gabriel Albums (adding as more albums are reviewed):

1. So
2. Peter Gabriel (Melt)
3. Us
4. Security
5. Peter Gabriel (Car)
6. Peter Gabriel (Scratch)

Top 10 Peter Gabriel Songs (adding as more albums are reviewed):

1. "In Your Eyes", So
2. "Don't Give Up", So
3. "Mercy Street", So
4. "Red Rain", So
5. "Solsbury Hill", Peter Gabriel (Car)
6. "That Voice Again", So
7. "Only Us", Us
8. "Wallflower", Security
9. "Games Without Frontiers", Peter Gabriel (Melt)
10. "I Don't Remember", Peter Gabriel (Melt)