Peter Gabriel – Us
It’s hard to stack any one Peter Gabriel album up against another, because each of them is born of different inspiration, and the sounds utilized on each of them are wildly different. It sounds as if Gabriel’s fascination with the regional sounds he compiled into the Passion album is still with him. This album is more percussive and less melodic than So, but the lyrics are Gabriel’s sharpest and most poignant to date. The best song on the album, however, is the solo piano simplicity of “Washing Of The Water”, a song about hurting and healing. Not far behind are “Love To Be Loved”, “Steam” and “Digging In The Dirt”. The album was inspired by Gabriel’s group therapy experiences following a painful divorce, and 
many of the songs speak of the consequences and recovery from hurtful or otherwise less than ideal relationships. I highly recommend this album, but only to those who are capable of handling its subject matter, which is significantly darker than your average pop/rock album. But then, when has Peter Gabriel ever unleashed an average pop/rock album?
… Read more
- Come Talk To Me (7:04)
- Love To Be Loved (5:16)
- Blood of Eden (6:35)
- Steam (6:02)
- Only Us (6:30)
- Washing of the Water (3:50)
- Digging In The Dirt (5:16)
- Fourteen Black Paintings (4:36)
- Kiss That Frog (5:27)
- Secret World (7:01)
Released by: RealWorld
Release date: 1992
Total running time: 57:37
This album, and the singles “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time”, were my first real exposure to Peter Gabriel, which is the case with a lot of people. This is easily Gabriel’s most accessibly mainstream album, but even with that in mind, it bears more than a casual listen. And it’s still my favorite, mainly due to simple personal-significance-in-my-life sort of reasons. But while this may be Peter’s most mainstream album, featuring as it did the singles “Sledgehammer” and the nutso “Big Time” (which therefore makes the latter my favorite of the two), it also has my all-time favorite Gabriel tune, a haunting little number called “Mercy Street” which to this day sends shivers down my spine. How much of that is the song itself and how much is actually just the instinctive correlation between hearing the song and remembering certain events in my life, I can’t tell, because I can’t separate them anymore. Whenever I seek a profound personal catharsis, I put my headphones on, crank the volume, and sing along as best I can. Again, whew. Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, Laurie Anderson also does a guest vocal on the memorable “This Is The Picture”.
While I give this album my highest recommendations and include it on my DNP Album List, it has one other distinction not shared by many of the other albums I’ve enjoyed and reviewed – it is incredibly important to me personally. Thank you, Pete.