Released: 1986
Tracks: Red Rain; Sledgehammer; Don’t Give Up; That Voice Again; In Your Eyes; Mercy Street; Big Time; We Do What We’re Told; This is the Picture
Best track: In Your Eyes
Track to skip: none
Hi there! It’s a total coincidence that I chose to review both So and Paul Simon’s
Graceland back to back. Both albums were not only huge sellers and probably the 2 most popular albums of 1986, but both really put “world music” into the mainstream like never before. I’m not saying it was the first time, but I think you can’t get any bigger world/rock fusions than these two. This album in itself spawned 5 hit singles. More than half of the album! And regardless of how much radio play Sledgehammer and Big Time got, I am still not remotely sick of them. How could you ever get sick of hearing the birth of Tony Levin’s Funk Fingers on that break in Big Time? Fantastic.
I love all the songs on here and some specific sections (like the Funk Fingers part) just stand out so wonderfully. The keyboard break in That Voice Again…the intro to Red Rain…Gabriel’s voice on the chorus of Mercy Street…the whole of In Your Eyes. Oh man, that is such an amazingly perfect song. It just blends so well the pop side with the world music side. Regardless of all the other excellence on here, I still say it’s the best song on So. Right now I only own two Peter Gabriel albums, but I know I’ll be buying more down the road. This is probably the best place to start for Gabriel’s music and a worthwhile purchase anyway.
Rating: 93
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