FriendBurst Blog

The early Genesis material is far better than the wishy-washy commercial crap the band churned out in the eighties and nineties – in my humble opinion.  Genesis was one of the best progressive rock bands of the seventies.  Peter Gabriel was the lead vocalist and Phil Collins was on drums (where he belonged).  Gabriel left the band in 1977, in order to pursue a solo career.  He has been very successful (mainly in the eighties, with the albums up to and including the hugely popular So).  He forged a very unique career path; dabbling in pop, rock, dance and world music.  He has worked with many musicians with vastly different styles.  He has always been keen to experiment with his music.

Shaking The Tree was released in 1990.  It contains all of Gabriel’s singles up to that point.  He has released just four studio albums since then (excluding the soundtracks and collaborations).  Secret World Live (a double-disc set) followed a successful tour of the 1992 album Us.  For the remainder of the nineties, Gabriel mainly wrote songs for films.  He also worked on his Ovo project.  He released one of his best albums (Up) in 2002.  An updated singles collection (Hit) appeared the following year.  Scratch My Back (2010) includes cover versions of songs by David Bowie, Paul Simon and Talking Heads (among others).  Gabriel already proved he didn’t need Phil Collins on drums.  It seems he doesn’t need drums at all now!

Dave Gahan has released two solo albums.  Paper Monsters (2003) was not a bad start.  Hourglass was a step forward.  With help from Andrew Phillpott and Christian Eigner (who has also worked with Depeche Mode over the past few years) Gahan created a more focused album, compared with his debut.  Fans of Depeche Mode should enjoy it.  Having gained confidence as a songwriter, Gahan wrote three songs for each of the last two Depeche Mode albums (Playing The Angel and Sounds Of The Universe).  Prior to 2005, Martin Gore wrote all the songs (after the departure of Vince Clarke).

Goldfrapp is also signed to Mute.  The debut album (Felt Mountain) is ‘trippy’ and mellow.  Despite its popularity, Goldfrapp changed direction on Black Cherry.  It is an electro-pop album, influenced by glam-rock.  Supernature is similar.  It is basically a dance album.  Seventh Tree is completely different.  It is very laid-back (similar to Felt Mountain in parts).  It has an organic feel.  The synthesizers were dusted off again in 2010 though.  Head First is a short album, packed with effervescent dance-pop songs.  The Singles was released earlier this year.  Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory are due to release album number six this year.  Incidentally, Goldfrapp’s studio is situated near Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio.

Garbage released four albums, over a period of ten years (from 1995 to 2005).  Absolute Garbage (2007) contains all of the singles plus an exclusive track (Tell Me Where It Hurts).  The limited edition is worth finding.  It features remixes by UNKLE, Massive Attack, Timo Maas and Felix Da Housecat – among many others.  Garbage’s albums have been above-average at worst and awesome at best.

Garbage drew attention early – especially with the singles Stupid Girl and Milk.  The band pulled out all the stops on Version 2.0 (1998).  It had just the right mixture of pop and rock – and it was dancefloor-friendly.  It was an enormous success.  Almost half of the songs were released as singles.  On Beautiful Garbage, the pop factor was pushed a bit hard for a lot of fans (it even sounds like The Spice Girls at one point).  However, Bleed Like Me was a return to the rock roots.  Some critics referred to it as the best Garbage album.  I disagree.  I prefer the nineties output.  The band has just released album number five (Not Your Kind Of People).  I haven’t heard it yet.

Further listening

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s56ApzonfKM