You have to hear this in hi-res.
I was listening on Spotify and it sounded like the music was filtered through steel wool, but when I pulled it up in Amazon, in what they call ULTRA HD, all the detritus was cleared away and the music was pure.
Then again, I wasn't listening on earbuds, but through my Genelecs...studio quality for studio quality music.
Now this used to be the paradigm, we bought the vinyl (prerecorded cassettes were inferior, having been replicated at high speed) and played it back on the stereos we worked all summer, for years to buy. We spoke of specs, THD (total harmonic distortion), talked about the merit of certain matchups...amp and speaker...speaker and cartridge...and when we dropped the needle we weren't doing the dishes, talking on the phone, we sat or stood in the sweet spot and experienced the music washing over us. And it wasn't always revelatory, but it was a pact between the act and the listener, they would do their very best, not only in writing and playing, but in recording, and then serve it up to us for evaluation.
That's not how the oldsters do it anymore. Most of them don't even bother to make new music.
As for the youngsters...when they're not busy thinking about their brand extensions, leaving the creativity in the hands of others, they're selling hedonism, not the intellectualism of Peter Gabriel.
So at this point, is Peter Gabriel the last man standing?
He wouldn't do a podcast with me because I criticized his dripping out of his last album track by track, a formula he's repeating with this LP. The problem is the landscape keeps changing... Track by track worked fifteen years ago, maybe ten, but not anymore in a world where it's nearly impossible to gain someone's attention, never mind keep it. Believe me, if I had more tracks I'd be listening to them right now.
As for "Come Undone"... I knew he was putting out this album on maybe a monthly basis, having to do with the moon or something, I could Google and get it exactly right, but the point is the press registered...at least on some level...the details? The point being I didn't know "Come Undone" had been released.
But it has.
And it came up in Jeff Pollack's weekly playlist of five. And to tell you the truth, at first I wasn't enamored. It's not that "Come Undone" was bad, it just reminded me too much of the experimental sounds of the initial solo career. And the sotto voce vocal was not riveting. It wasn't quite "Moribund the Burgermeister," but I wanted to be taken away, I wanted to like it, and at first I didn't, it was kind of blah.
And Spotify told me the song was nearly eight minutes long and I laughed to myself...he's still doing it the same way, he's not compromising, he's still being Peter Gabriel.
And while I was watching a non-sound video on the 2027 K2 skis, something changed, there was an intensity, a driving beat, very different from the fake 808, the song had started subtly, but it was building, and I was becoming enamored.
So Peter Gabriel is in his own business and his own business only. This is not the way it used to be, it used to be all about radio and retail...get it on the radio so people buy it, create numbers that got people's attention, do your best to start a juggernaut.
But can a guy with roots in prog rock who's over 70 create a juggernaut today? Can anybody create a juggernaut today? And those who do, like the Weeknd and Bruno Mars...they may be in the same business, but they're in a completely different stratosphere when it comes to music.
It's hard to create in a vacuum, sans feedback, most people need context, need to see the route to success, and without that they lose the drive. Never mind if you've been to the mountaintop, looked around and realized your achievement didn't solve all your problems, most people can't get up the gumption to climb again.
You're listening to "Come Undone" and you realize this wasn't written and done in a day. It's layered. The individual sounds are important. Getting the vision down is important.
For me the song comes alive just before the six minute mark, with the industrial sounds and then Peter's full-strength emoting, he's giving it his all, the faders are pushed up and it might not appeal to you.
Or it just might.
That's what we're looking for, something that appeals to us. Me-too is good to dance to, but to listen we're looking for something unique, more than a pretty voice, more than the ability to play...we're looking for exploration, a statement.
"Time to let go, just listen and feel
Just listen and feel"
P.S. It's not as simple as paying for hi-res from the service of your choice, you've got to have a DAC (digital to analog converter). That will get you full resolution, in many cases in excess of CD quality, but all stereo mavens know that as good as the source material is, the end result is colored most by the speakers... You must have enough power for full sound, to avoid distortion, and your speakers must be able to replicate the bottom...not the fake one from the car next to you at the stoplight with the pounding bass, but one with accuracy.
P.P.S. Most creators are no longer concerned with audio quality, because it costs too much, and most people don't have systems that can reproduce it anyway. But sound is sound, and you want to hear it replicated as accurately as possible. And you want to be able to turn it up loud enough so you can feel it, so it squeezes out all other thoughts.
P.P.P.S. By the end of the song, you'll either be intrigued or you won't... I will say, the more you play "Come Undone," the more you get into it. However, let's be clear, this is definitely an album track, "Come Undone" is not "Sledgehammer" or "Shock the Monkey," but that's another problem with the modern marketplace, everybody's trying for hits all the time.
P.P.P.P.S. There's nothing rote about "Come Undone." What you've got is an artist, delivering his work, you can either accept it or not, but it's clear it's uncompromised.
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