Peter Gabriel | ||||
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Studio album by Peter Gabriel | ||||
Released | 2 June 1978 | |||
Recorded | November 1977 – February 1978 | |||
Studio | Relight Studios, Hilvarenbeek, The Netherlands | |||
Genre | Progressive rock, art rock | |||
Length | 41:29 | |||
Label | UK: Charisma USA: Atlantic |
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Producer | Robert Fripp | |||
Peter Gabriel chronology | ||||
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Singles from Peter Gabriel | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Chicago Sun-Times | |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
Q | |
Rolling Stone | |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
The Village Voice | B− |
Peter Gabriel is the second solo album by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released in 1978. The album is the second of four with the same eponymous title. Guitarist Robert Fripp served as producer, whose influence on the album is evident in the use of 'Frippertronics' on the track "Exposure". The album did not sell as well as the first Peter Gabriel, but reached No. 10 on the UK charts. "Mother of Violence" was written by Peter and his first wife Jill Gabriel.
This album is often referred to as Scratch, referring to the album cover by Hipgnosis.
This album was originally intended as part of a loose trilogy with Robert Fripp's Exposure and Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs (all three albums were produced by Fripp).
Writing in the NME in 1978, Nick Kent claimed "its brazenly left-field veneer left me cold at first, and it's only now that its strengths are starting to come across...once past the disarming non-focus veneer, there's a quietly remarkable talent at work – quiet in the manner of the slow fuse burn of Mother of Violence with Roy Bittan's piano work outstripping anything he's turned out for either Bruce Springsteen or David Bowie. Closer to the root of the album, there's a purity, a strength to the songs individual enough to mark Gabriel out as a man whose creative zenith is close at hand."
All songs written by Peter Gabriel, except where indicated.