Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It could be speculated that to take two decades to release a new original album might see the artist in question expect to undergo a series of tough and rigorous demands and interrogations on the journey, on the distance, and how the new release might see them remain prevalent to a new generation of music listeners; especially in a period of time in which the extreme nature of art is as disposable as honour and understanding.
The counterweight to the questioning from the fans is too draw it out, to have an answer ready on a significant date every month and which, whilst making up the ultimate reveal, can revel in the genius like promotion to which the eventuality will hang in splendour and that time, those missing years, will feel like mere weeks, the days of the full moon separating the new, the exciting, and the return of the governor, the crown prince of artistic Prog, to the nation’s heart and soul.
Peter Gabriel’s i/o is a return long heralded, a return that shows the uniqueness of vision he provides is such that in the 21 years since Up, albeit with two sublime cover albums and a film score to his illustrious name in between, that the sense of majesty surrounding each track is an occasion, a ferocity tightly wrapped in a tornado of calm and passionate expression.
From the moment Panopticom marches in the space where the listener resides, the heart and mind are in sync, and as with almost every release that the former Genesis frontman has been involved with, innovative is the key word that drives and unites the emotions felt in the experience.
That showmanship, the respect given to every track, the almost intense deliberation on the message as well as the emotion, is quite unlike anything else, and in the final result, as the listener leans back spent and thrilled by what has transpired, songs such as Playing For Time, Four Kinds of Horses, Olive Tree, and This Is Home are a measured response to time, a grilling of distance soon forgotten, for this is the moment, spread over the course of a year, in which arguably the definitive artist offers once more his vision and observations.
Into the third decade of the 21st Century, Peter Gabriel remains more relevant to the world than any politician, official, and decision maker; for in the uniqueness of being, i/o is a masterpiece, art of the highest order.
Ian D. Hall