Released: 1994
Tracks: Come Talk to Me; Steam; Across the River; Slow Marimbas; Shaking the Tree; Red Rain; Blood of Eden; Kiss That Frog; Washing of the Water; Solsbury Hill; Digging in the Dirt; Sledgehammer; Secret World; Don’t Give Up; In Your Eyes
Best track: maybe Steam or Across the River
Track to skip: Kiss That Frog
The majority of these songs come from Gabriel’s So and Us albums and except for the stragglers (Across the River, Slow Marimbas & Solsbury Hill), Secret World Live is essentially a “best of” for those two albums. Although it’s disappointing to be covering primarily two releases, it makes sense because 1983’s Plays Live (his previous live album) covers his first four albums pretty well. Peter Gabriel had a fantastic band with him for this tour, anchored by David Rhodes on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, Paula Cole on vocals and the excellent Manu Katché on drums. Levin is great throughout, esp. on Steam, but for me Katché is the highlight of this album. His absolutely monstrous drumming propels songs like Come Talk to Me and Across the River. I really love Paula Cole’s vocals on this album and she shines on Shaking the Tree, Don’t Give Up and Come Talk to Me.
As he was touring for the Us album, many of these songs deal with love and sex, and one of the more obvious ones is Kiss That Frog. It’s upbeat, which is nice, but it’s a pretty piss-poor song and one I always dread hearing. While the version of the hit Sledgehammer doesn’t make me jump for the fwd button, it’s a disappointment because it’s so pedestrian and lacks the fire of the studio version. As individual songs/performances most of these songs are really good, but in listening to the album as a whole work, it’s a lot to sit through so many slow and mid-tempo songs. The faster ones provide some nice contrast, but when you’ve got stuff like the awful Kiss That Frog and the uninspired Sledgehammer, you just feel that there’s nowhere to turn that will make it a better experience. The solid version of Solsbury Hill does help, though.
While it may not have been as authentic of an experience, a single-disc version of this album probably would’ve been better. I honestly don’t listen to this that much anymore. Ever since watching the Secret World Live DVD and seeing how much of a “performance” it was, versus musicians up there playing music, it’s kind of turned me off to this album. Watching the DVD you really get the coldness of the performances and since seeing that, I hear it now too. That said, the work of Katché, Levin & Cole is stellar and they make this album worth listening to. Some of the versions here are outright excellent: the “kitchen sink” version of In Your Eyes, Steam, Across the River, Come Talk to Me, Red Rain. Those make me want to listen to this album. Some of the others…not so much. Ultimately it’s an interesting document and exciting to hear the first time, but it lessens over time. Overall it’s just kind of ho-hum now for me.
Rating: 83
February 21, 2012, 
8:31 am
Write a comment