Peter Gabriel 3 (Melt) - Peter Gabriel (1980)

Ideated from: an excellent little YT feature about Gabriel’s early solo albums, and this one in particular.

Peter Gabriel wanted to make a statement as a solo artist, which apparently included naming each of his first three records “Peter Gabriel.” This was the third, aptly referred to as “melt” most of the time.

It’s a very forward thinking record that mashes up bits and pieces of PG’s old prog rock roots with heavy doses of early industrial and programmed music, modernist composition, and lots of other things.

I didn’t realize it until that video pointed it out, but both drummers who appear on the album–Phil Collins and Jerry Marotta–were instructed by Gabriel not to use any cymbals to get them out of their comfort zone. It works very well, and makes for a lean and mean sound. This is also the record where Collins and producer Steve Lillywhite discovered the method of making the “gated drums” sound that would be such a feature of lots of 80s music.

Tony Levin only plays on one track, but he has said in an interview that the day of the session was the day he first met both Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp, also on the track. He’d end up working with these two in lots of different combos for the next 30 years.

Tracks I Liked

I Don’t Remember - the Levin and Fripp combo drive the track hard, and the vocal gets intense.

Games Without Frontiers - a loopy Kraftwerk sort of thing. I thought the lyrics were fun, but had never caught on to the geopolitical implications of the post-war world. I’m a little dense like that.