HIT

This is a nearly perfect compilation for new listeners of Peter Gabriel. Very well is, that the great acoustic version of "Here Comes The Flood" is included. There are also some great unreleased songs like "Burn You Up, Burn You Down", "Cloudless" or "Downside Up (Live)", what is very interestening for fans too, who already have the complete backcatalogue of the genius. In normal way, I never give the highest possibly rating for a greatest hits album, but at this time, it's the only way for me. I'll buy the german version of "Hit" in the next days or weeks, where all the 30 songs here are performed in german language by Peter. Must be sounding very funny, because I am from germany :)

I have to admit that I was given this album, no way was I going to purchase this CD. A greatest hits album of Peter Gabriel just does not sound right....but now that I have it in my possession I stand corrected as I quite like it.' Burn You Up, Burn You Down' from my understanding was co-written by Karl Wallinger of World Party fame. A highly undervalued and underrated artist. It goes without saying why Gabriel collaborrated with Karl Wallinger to make this grooving driving beat of a song.Apparently they have an unreleased album called the Blue Ball project, I am waiting in anticipation...

Most people will be familiar with PG's work so from a package point of view the songs make sense being a collection. If you are new to Peter Gabriel however listen to ' Solsbury Hill', ' Games Without Frontiers', ' Growing Up', ' Red Rain', ' San Jacinto' - his finest piece of music IMO, ' The Rythym of The Heat' and ' The Drop' to name but a few. Peter Gabriel is accompanied by his regulars as in Daniel Lanois, David Rhodes, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac fame, Tony Levin, Fripp, Kate Bush and on... Overall a very satisfying album, one drawback, so little of PG 2 on here, only' D.I.Y 'made it.

A true HIT album!

I'm usually now a fan of compilation albums as a "real fan" would always prefer to have all original studio albums rather than just some compilation disc. Usually it also tends to reek after some "cashing in" by the artist as many artist come up with some compilation albums when they are long lost and forgotten. This is one would be an exception to the rule I think, since Mr. Gabriel has still released many fine albums after this one. I guess it's not a bad one to start with if you didn't already own some (or all) of his preceding studio albums.

"HIT" is truly a very appealing 2 disc setter though. Actually, if you would not own any PG albums yet, I would recommend you to start here! The 1990 compilation "Shaking the Tree" was already a nice compilation, but "HIT" is even better! "HIT" contains 2 CD's, the 1st one containing 15 tracks and the 2nd one containing 16 tracks. This is 15 tracks more than on "Shaking the Tree"! But then again, "HIT" was released 4 studio albums after the sixteen golden greats.

Conclusion: if you don't have any PG album yet, start here! If you already do have quite some albums of PG, it is still a nice compilation to have anyhow.

I'm not quite sure what the point of this was. OK, I bought it, even though I had practically everything here on other albums. It's uniformly high quality music - but if you are going to listen to 150 minutes of PETER GABRIEL, why not play PG III, followed by PG IV, followed by US or UP?

Still, a few people might begin their exploration of this outstanding musician here. If so, give it plenty of listens, and let yourself be impressed by the breadth of his musical vision. Then note carefully where your favourite tracks come from, and go shell out some cash for the original albums.

I admired PG's original idea to call the first CD 'Hits' and the second 'Misses'. I can also see why his record company wasn't so keen. Nevertheless, that's how it is arranged - the tracks on the second CD are more obscure than the first. You'l wonder why the sparkling 'Burn you Up, Burn You Down' didn't make it on to the final cut of 'Up'.

Not bad - if you really have to include the hits in the first place. That's to say, if this was a single CD, without the second one cleverly titled "Miss", this would have been very surpriseless compilation. And mostly made of those PG tracks I like the least (if at all), such as the disgusting, funky ones 'Big Time' and 'Steam'. Surely there are beautiful calm hits too: 'Don't Give Up' featuring Kate Bush, 'Blood of Eden' featuring Sinead O'Connor... and classics like 'Biko', 'Here Comes the Flood' and 'Red Rain'.

It's really the other disc that makes this a superior PG compilation. A lot of good album tracks from IV (1982) and Up especially are included. The choices could have been a bit more democratic and include for example more from the maligned II (1978) than just 'D.I.Y', or from the debut besides the obvious two songs. There's only one live song, 'Downside Up' featuring her daughter Melanie. And it's frustrating to get also on the second disc several songs familiar from the video collection Play, (the boring 'Lovetown' and the warm 'Father, Son'). But in the end probably this is the most succesful PG compilation I've seen, since the hit material seems to be the main thing in all of them.