PETER GABRIEL 2 [AKA: SCRATCH]

An album even most of Gabriel´s most die hard fans agree on isn't that good. It not as good as the debut album, and certainly not as good as his later material, but it does contain some good track. Peter Gabriel 2 (or "Scratch", if you like) is not as worthless as people say. Almost, though.

With the second album Gabriel makes the strange choice of pursuing the first album´s glamrock theme, but with a bit dirtier sound. It doesnt suit him at all, the songs sound rushed through and he tries to hide the lack of good songwriting behind a cold attitude of not really caring, "as long as its not Genesis".

"On the air" and "D.I.Y." is as boring as it gets. Gabriel focusing so much on having an asskicking and cold attitude, you can hardly even hear what he sings. The guitarist is riffing on pretty much only routine, just another glamrock creation. I remembered the boring "Mother of violence" as much more emotional, but I´ll give him a plus for at least trying. Then comes the strange "A wonderful day in a one-way world", which I can't get a grip on at all. What was the purpose with this one? A pop hit? A psychedelic country song? It sounds terrible and that chorus is? I would actually state that this is a really bad song.

The big surprise for me was "White Shadow", a completely forgotten track (its on Gabriels second album, so who could blame me?) and is way better than anything else on this album. Lot of synthesizers going on, some of it actually sounded so much like Tony Banks, I had to check if i guested on the album (Of course he didn't.) and finally Robert Fripp doing some of that Fripp-ish stuff with a pure Crimson-solo, small weird noises and stretched notes. Ironically, the only thing I don't like about this track is Gabriel himself, that vocal melody is very boring, especially in the chorus. Next song "Indigo" isn't bad either. It starts with just Gabriel's voice, singing out soft and clear, and a piano. Of course he adds a lot of stuff to this simple setting as the song grows, a lot of different keyboard sounds and a really good, but simple, drumline giving the song a good groove. Its a really good song sounding a bit like Gabriel in the future.

Then we are back to the ordinary Scratch-standard song. "Animal Magic" makes me think, maybe he´s trying to sound like David Bowie, which is a good thought but not a good idea. Nobody can sound like Bowie, except Bowie himself. "Exposure" sounds like an attempt to create some psychedelic funk, but the result is only cool for a short moment, soon it gets very repetitive. "Flotsam and Jetsam" is a bit more atmospheric than the other tracks and to start with it sounds promising and exciting, with a cool bassline and some good guitar playing, but it doesn't lead anywhere. Its probably the most forgettable track on the album. The two last songs, "Perspective" and "Home sweet home" are the same kind of glam rock as the first tracks, not very interesting at all except some good singing on the last one.

I would say this is a Peter Gabriel trying hard to find his own identity in music. If his debut album was a patchy experience, it's nothing against this one. Its a disaster with too many half bad ideas and too many different types of songs. Its still nothing but a revolt against his roots in Genesis and the progressive genre. To see it from a positive perspective, he never done anything this bad again. From here it could only get better.