Peter Gabriel 3: Melt cover

Peter Gabriel 3: Melt

Released

The third solo album from Peter Gabriel balances the playful and the dark with a God Mode handle on tone. Placing strict rules on the drummers (ex-Genesis bandmate Phil Collins and Jerry Marrotta) to abandon cymbals gives the album a phenomenal sense of gooey depth, as “No Self Control” putters along with Reich-ian marimba, “I Don’t Remember” and “Not One Of Us” crack through the goo with post-punk fury and paranoia, and the villains of “Intruder” and “Family Snapshot” lurch and crawl across the walls of gated drums and sweeping orchestrations. The epic finale “Biko” remains one of the great anti-apartheid songs to come from outside of South Africa, with the calls for greater revolutionary action going from a whisper to a holler over hypnotic drums and organ. A wonderfully haunting success all around. 

Alex Riggs

Suggestions
God Games cover

God Games

The Kills
Ram cover

Ram

Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney
i/o cover

i/o

Peter Gabriel
She’s So Unusual cover

She’s So Unusual

Cyndi Lauper
McCartney III cover

McCartney III

Paul McCartney
Big Smash! cover

Big Smash!

Wreckless Eric
Donkey cover

Donkey

CSS
Flush The Fashion cover

Flush The Fashion

Alice Cooper
Boonoonoonoos cover

Boonoonoonoos

Boney M.
Crime of the Century cover

Crime of the Century

Supertramp
Kiko cover

Kiko

Los Lobos
Roxy Music cover

Roxy Music

Roxy Music