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Peter Gabriel: I/o Review – A Beautiful Comeback Three Decades In The Making

Peter Gabriel's tenth studio album of original material has been compared to both the Beach Boys' Smile and Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy. These were two records with legendarily elephantine gestation periods, although the latter seems an inadequate yardstick: Chinese Democracy came out 15 years after Guns N' Roses' previous album, a veritable rush release compared to the 28 years Gabriel has been working on i/o.

Peter Gabriel: i/o album art

Its production apparently began concurrently with that of his last album of original material Up, in 1995 – before 70% of the artists in the current UK singles Top 10 were even born. It was first scheduled for release in 2004, two years after Up came out, although you could hardly accuse Gabriel of slacking in the interim period: he's released nine albums – collections of cover versions and his own songs re-recorded with an orchestra, a film soundtrack, the collaborative work Big Blue Ball (also begun in 1995), three live albums and two compilations – toured seven times, co-founded and sold a digital distribution network, helped launch the international non-governmental organisation the Elders, the "brain-on-music entertainment, media and tech studio" Reverberation and Panopticom. The latter is an "infinitely expandable, universally accessible data globe" for which i/o's opening track of the same name acts as a kind of jingle, albeit a luxuriously-appointed one: it lasts more than five minutes, comes, like the rest of i/o in two distinct mixes (one by Mark "Spike" Stent and one by Tchad Blake) and features both Brian Eno on synth and session musician supremo Tony Levin on bass.

Moreover, the album has clearly warped and changed dramatically over time. It frequently reads like an extended meditation on old age, a subject a septuagenarian artist has every right to discuss. It variously sees Gabriel haunted by the passing of a previous generation on And Still; aware of his own encroaching mortality – trapped in a body that "stiffens, tires and aches in its wrinkled, blotchy skin" – on So Much; happy to let "the young move to the centre" on Playing for Time and at peace with his place in the cosmic structure of things on the title track. Even when its lyrics venture into current events – Four Kinds of Horses could be aimed at violent religious fundamentalism or rightwing populism and The Court explores the effect of the internet on public discourse – they do so from the vantage point of someone who's been around a long time: "Ah, you say you're something different, but you do it all again", as the former puts it wearily. It's an approach that's effective and affecting, but i/o couldn't have started out like that, for the simple reason that Peter Gabriel was only 45 when he began work on it.

Peter Gabriel: i/o (Bright-Side mix) – video

Patched together from sessions in Britain, Italy, South Africa, Sweden and onstage at Rexall Place, a Canadian arena venue that closed down five years ago, it's to i/o's immense credit that doesn't feel like an album that's been endlessly, if intermittently, reworked over decades. It's all clearly carefully considered, but it still sounds remarkably fresh as it touches, lightly, on a variety of Gabriel's longstanding preoccupations. On the tour that accompanied the gradual release of i/o's tracks online – one every full moon – Gabriel performed his new material alongside the big hits from 1986's So. If there's nothing here as obviously commercial as Sledgehammer or Don't Give Up, there's definitely a hint of 80s brashness about the horns on the bright-hued Olive Tree and an epic, stadium-ready grandeur to the title track. His interest in music from beyond the west is reflected in the sinuous rhythm of This Is Home. You would struggle to describe And Still as prog rock per se, but its piano, flute and cello certainly trades in the kind of rain-spattered, very English melancholy that was among early 70s Genesis's key modes.

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Peter Gabriel review – haunted new songs have fans punching the air

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It's dense and rewarding and has more interesting things to say than the earnest but pat song titles – Live and Let Live, Love Can Heal – suggest. Anyone wondering at the wisdom of releasing an album consisting of songs already freely available to stream might note that, lunar-influenced drip-fed release or not, it's clearly been conceived as an album: listened to in one sitting, it ebbs and flows beautifully. And given the size of the gap that separates i/o from Up, it's tempting to wonder something else: whether it might be Gabriel's last album of original material. Its highlight might be Playing for Time, a ballad that slowly moves to a dramatic climax. The lyrics feature Gabriel climbing a hill, as the lyrics of his debut solo single did, but this time lost in memories and the thought of time's passing. It would work perfectly as a grand finale. I/o is so rich in ideas, you hope it won't have to.

Ghost Woman – YokoRaw power: slashing guitars over a Cramps-by-way-of-Krautrock riff, an impressively chaotic burst of arhythmic noise in lieu of a middle eight.

Listen: Peter Gabriel Delivers Final 'i/o' Preview On "Live And Let Live"

Photo Credit: York Tillyer

Peter Gabriel has released "Live and Let Live," the final single off his upcoming album, i/o, which will be released in full on Friday, Dec. 1. The track, which comes in two different mixes, follows a pattern Gabriel used to put out previous numbers off the set: Dropping singles on the new moon of every month. 

The song, featuring cover art from Nick Cave, is a powerful anthem about forgiveness and love. Gabriel said when he was initially creating the tune, he had Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu in mind, but after the war broke out in Israel, as well as the ongoing tension in Ukraine, Gabriel saw a shift in the importance of the song. 

Echoing the precious sentiment, Gabriel described the intent behind his new single via Instagram as "A song about forgiveness, tolerance, and optimism. A joyous, rousingly-positive closing note for the album." 

i/o will be the English musician's first album since 2011, and new, original music since 2002's Up, although Gabriel has already performed most of the songs live on his tour this year. The entire album will be available in two distinct mixes: the "Bright-Side Mix" by Mark 'Spike' Stent or the "Dark-Side Mix" by Tchad Blake.

Peter Gabriel Releases Live And Let Live, The Final Single From I/o

Peter Gabriel studio portrait.

Peter Gabriel has shared new song Live And Let Live, which you can listen to below. It's the twelfth and final track to be released from the upcoming album, i/o, which is released this Friday, Dec 1.

Gabriel has been releasing all of the album's twelve tracks as stand-alone videos or streams, with various mixes and unique artwork from a variety of artists, in addition to performing them all live on is recent European and US tour dates.

Live and Let Live, a song about forgiveness, tolerance and optimism, was the last song to have been written for the i/o and features contributions from many players already heard on other songs, such as Tony Levin, David, Rhodes, Manu Katché, Brian Eno, Melanie Gabriel, John Metcalfe and the New Blood Orchestra.

"Music can be like a box of mood pills that we can use to treat ourselves and a lot of the work of the Reverberation project is focused on that sort of idea," Gabriel explains. "When someone suggested that forgiveness might be a topic to write about, at first, I thought, 'that's not interesting to me,' but then I remembered two things. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was the chair of The Elders and a real mentor for me, led the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in South Africa and that really allowed people to expose, report and maybe feel again some of the horrors of the apartheid era. I remember he always said that listening made a huge difference, just making sure people felt heard and recognized. Then, sometimes, it created a space for forgiveness.

"There's also a description that Nelson Mandela gave when he was released from jail after 27 years in prison and found himself about to become president of South Africa, standing next to some of the people who'd been responsible for keeping him in jail all that time. He said he felt some of the old fear and hatred swelling up inside him but when he thought hard about it, he realized that he needed to find a way to work with these people, to build what he called his rainbow coalition. He needed to feel their humanity and ultimately to find a way to forgive them. He was quite sure that if he couldn't forgive them and find a way to work with them, that he would remain their prisoner for the rest of his days.

"Now, I know if we look at what's happening in the Middle East now or in Ukraine, all sorts of places around the world where there's still violence and brutality, to walk around with a bunch of flowers, preaching forgiveness seems trite and pathetic, maybe. But in the long run, I think people have to find a way. 'Peace only happens when you respect the rights of others' is a quote from the Peace University in Costa Rica and I think that's a really important message for me and for my life. You either belong to that hurt or you free yourself and forgiveness is clearly a super effective way of freeing yourself."

i/o is released as two stereo mixes: the Bright-Side Mix, handled by Mark 'Spike' Stent, and the Dark-Side Mix, as reshaped by Tchad Blak. A third mix, the Dolby Atmos In-Side Mix, is included in a three-disc set.

i/o will be released on vinyl as a 2 LP Bright Side Mix and 2 LP Dark Side mix, as a 2 CD set featuring both mixes, a 2 CD and Blu-ray set featuring both mixes plus the In-Side mix. A 4 LP, 2 CD and Blu-ray box set, which comes in a casebound book with expanded liner notes and a poster, will be released on March 8.

Pre-order i/o.

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