SO

This album showcases a very modern sounding, progressive pop oriented Peter Gabriel. I have to admit that I'm still not very pleased with it because this music doesn't match with my progrock taste, it is too far away from the Peter Gabriel I witnessed during many concerts between 1979 and 1985. But on the other hand I conclude that Peter Gabriel is an excellent composer and he manages to create wonderful atmospheres that evoke the subjects he is writing about: the melancholy in "Red rain" and "Mercy street", the funny and catchy metaphor for sex in "Sledgehammer", love and hope in the very moving duet with Kate Bush in "Don't give up", the megalomania in "Big time" and the tension in "We do what we're told (Milgram's 37) about that awful psychological experiment with students who thought they could take the opportunity to torture more and more! Conclusion: a very good progressive pop album that has not very much to do with progressive rock. It became the start of Peter Gabriel's worldwide recognition and commercial success but I stopped with visiting his concerts although these gigs remain a visual spectacle.