Scratch My Back

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:53:20
Personnel: Richard George, Rick Koster, Matthew Scrivener, Louisa Fuller, Peter Hanson , Clare Hayes, Martin Burgess, Helen Paterson, Steve Morris , Ian Belton, Ian Humphries, Everton Nelson, Jeremy Morris (violin); John Metcalfe , Elisabeth Varlow, Fiona Bonds, Paul Cassidy, Helen Kamminga (viola); Ian Burdge, Jackie Thomas, Alice Neary , William Schofield, Chris Worsey (cello); Eliza Marshall (flute); Tim Lines (clarinet); Sarah Burnett (bassoon); Gordon Laing (contrabassoon); Daniel Newell, Andrew Crowley , Paul Mayes (trumpet); Tracy Holloway, Ed Tarrant (trombone, euphonium); Dan Jenkins, Richard Edwards (trombone); Mark Frost, Richard Henry (bass trombone); David Powell (tuba); Richard Steggall, Richard Bissell, Richard Watkins , Dave Lee (horns); Tom Cawley (piano); Ben Russell , Chris Laurence , Richard Pryce (double bass). Audio Mixers: John Metcalfe ; Richard Chappell. Recording information: Air Lyndhurst; AIR Studios; Real World Studios; The Bus Stop; The Real World Temple; Tom-Tom D Studio, Budapest. Photographers: David Hiscock; Nadav Kander. Arranger: John Metcalfe . Considering the slow trickle of completed albums he has released since becoming a superstar in 1986 -- just two albums of songs with vocals, paired with two albums of soundtracks and two live records -- deliberate is expected from Peter Gabriel, so the slow, hushed crawl of Scratch My Back is no shock. What may be a shock is that Gabriel chose to follow 2002's Up with a covers album but, like all of his work, this 2010 record is highly conceptual no matter how minimal the end result may be. Designed as the first half of a two-part project where Gabriel would cover 12 different artists who would then return the favor by recording their own versions of Gabriel's compositions -- the counterpart album naturally bearing the title I'll Scratch Yours -- Scratch My Back divides neatly between six songs from his peers (Bowie, Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Lou Reed, David Byrne) and six songs from younger artists (Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Stephin Merritt, Bon Iver, Elbow, Regina Spektor). Gabriel doesn't dodge familiar tunes, choosing to sing "Heroes" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," but he twists each tune to his own needs, arranging everything with nothing more than piano and strings, a change that's almost jarring on Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble," yet it stays true to the undercurrent of melancholy in the melody. Indeed, all of Scratch My Back is stark, sober, and spare, delving ever deeper inward, a triumph of intellect over emotion -- a noted contrast to almost all cover albums that celebrate the visceral, not the cerebral. Immediate it may not be but fascinating it is, and after hearing Gabriel turn all 12 of these songs into something unmistakably his own, the appetite is surely whetted for its companion piece. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine