Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Sun-Times
Christgau's Record Guide	B−
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly	A−
Mojo
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Uncut	9/10

Peter Gabriel is the third album by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released in May 1980. The album has been acclaimed as Gabriel's artistic breakthrough as a solo artist and for establishing him as one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians. Gabriel also explored more overtly political material with two of his most famous singles, the anti-war song "Games Without Frontiers" (which became a number four hit and remains his joint highest charting single in the UK) and the anti-apartheid protest song "Biko", which remembered the murdered activist Steve Biko. The album was remastered, along with most of Gabriel's catalogue, in 2002.

This album is often referred to as Melt owing to its cover photograph by Hipgnosis.

Gabriel's ex-Genesis bandmate Phil Collins, who succeeded Gabriel as Genesis' lead vocalist, plays drums on several of the album's tracks. In particular, Collins played drums on "Intruder", which has been cited as the first use of Collins' "gated drum" sound. This effect, as created by Steve Lillywhite, Collins and Hugh Padgham, was featured on Collins' and Genesis's recordings throughout the 1980s. The distinctive sound was identified via experiments by Lillywhite, Collins and Padgham, in response to Gabriel's request that Collins and Jerry Marotta not use cymbals on the album's sessions. The sound was significant enough and influential enough that it has been claimed by Gabriel, Padgham, Collins, and Lillywhite. The drum sound on this album has been noted by Public Image Ltd as influencing the sound on their album Flowers of Romance, whose engineer, Nick Launay, was in turn employed by Collins to assist him with his first solo album, Face Value.Paul Weller, who was recording with his band The Jam in a nearby studio, was asked to contribute guitar to "And Through The Wire". Gabriel believed Weller's intense guitar style was ideal for the track.

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