PETER GABRIEL 2 [AKA: SCRATCH]

With this second album Gabriel is still developing his style and like it's predecessor is a bit like a hit-and-miss experience, with some very good songs as well as some forgettable ones. I think this album is more homogenous than its predecessor, sonically speaking, but that doesn't mean that is necessarily better.

On The Air is a nice and energetic opener, a solid song.

D.I.Y. is catchy, cool and even emotional at times, all this in less than 3 minutes, not bad eh?

Mother Of Violence has a meloncholic feel, I didn't like at first, but it gets better with each listen, Peter's performance here is very subtle.

A Wonderful Day... is one of my favs from the first era Gabriel, excellent arrangements, a moderately theatrical performance by the man and a very evocative chorus, simple but touching.

White Shadow is one of the highlights of the album, a solid song with a strong melody,even dark at times. Here PG goes emotional again and in a great way. I'd love to see this included in his concerts, Tony Levin shines at the end.

With Indigo the quality begins to go down, while not a bad song, is a ballad that sounds a bit generic to me, even though it has its moments, but at the end of the day is a forgettable tune.

Animal Magic is another so-so track, sligtly pleasant, with some good musical ideas but no strong melodies to hold the interest for long.

Exposure is kind of an experimental song, almost a jam, with Tony Levin's bass ruling over all the other instruments including PG's voice, it's interesting in its nature but suffers from its position in the track list.

Flotsam And Jetsam begins in a good way but finally leads to nowhere. At this point the album is swimmingmore and more in the seas of mediocrity.

Pespective is an up-beat song, slightly more interesting than the previous tracks but without reaching the quality of the first half of the album, is fun to listen to a certain extent but is also quite repetitive

Home Sweet Home is another song that is not exactly bad, but seems aimless, plus at this point you are listening to 4 or 5 inconsistent songs in a row....

The first five songs rank from very good to great, but then the album goes downhill and never picks up. No song is terrible but many are inconsistent and very forgettable. I think this deserves 2.5 stars, but since I consider this album to be interesting mostly to PG fans, I will give it a 2.