So you can get old(er) too, I thought in May of this year, after Peter Gabriel's (73) very convincing performance at the Ziggo Dome. Unlike many of his contemporaries, the former
Genesis singer proved that he did not rest on old successes, but kept his finger firmly on the pulse of time. 'I'm just a part of everything,' he sings for good reason on i/o, the title track of his tenth studio album, due
… seven months later. Gabriel reportedly worked on it for nearly three decades and the result is almost bursting at the seams with beautiful musical details. The audiophile Englishman couldn't even resist the temptation to release two versions; the transparent Bright-Side Mix and the more stuffy Dark-Side Mix. A slight exaggeration - they are not that different from each other. Much more important is that Gabriel has delivered a true masterpiece with i/o. Thrilling ballads (Playing For Time, Four Kinds Of Horses, So Much) are interspersed with funky work (The Court, Road To Joy) and banging choruses (i/o, Olive Tree). Grand and compelling - yes, I'd like to grow old like that! (RME)more
