Peter Gabriel‘s third self-titled solo album is released by Charisma Records (and, in the United States, by Mercury). The album reunites Gabriel with former Genesis bandmate Phil Collins, and features his earliest collaborations with Kate Bush; the single “Games Without Frontiers” becomes a hit in Europe. 
There’s no such thing as a typical Peter Gabriel album. You can barely even compare one Gabriel album to another, as the style and emphasis shifts with each one of them. Hell, it’s even hard to put titles to them because the first three – technically, even the fourth (usually known as Security) as well – are simply titled Peter Gabriel. This is the album with the strange picture of Peter’s face melting. (Well, I’ll even grant you that most of his album covers are strange pictures of one sort or another…this is really getting us nowhere, isn’t it? Let’s talk about music, shall we?) Several of these tracks rank among my favorites, including the somewhat sinister “Intruder”, “I Don’t Remember”, “Not One Of Us”, and “And Through The Wire”. Also included are the slightly more familiar singles “Biko” and “Games Without Frontiers”. There’s also quite a slate of “guest stars” on the album, from Robert Fripp to Phil Collins to Kate Bush, but the end result remains distinctly Peter Gabriel. Highly recommended.
- Intruder (4:53)
- No Self Control (3:56)
- Start (1:21)
- I Don’t Remember (4:42)
- Family Snapshot (4:29)
- And Through the Wire (4:58)
- Games Without Frontiers (4:07)
- Not One Of Us (5:21)
- Lead a Normal Life (4:15)
- Biko (7:27)
Released by: Charisma
Release date: 1980
Total running time: 45:29
1996 music review by Earl Green