Ovo

Peter Gabriel

2000: Real World PGCD9

1. The Story of OVO
2. Low Light
3. The Time of the Turning
4. The Man Who Loved the Earth / The Hand That Sold Shadows
5. The Time of the Turning (Reprise) / The Weavers Reel
6. Father, Son
7. The Tower That Ate People
8. Revenge
9. White Ashes
10. Downside-Up
11. The Nest That Sailed the Sky
12. Make Tomorrow

I’ve had a tough time with this album ever since I got it in 2001. I didn’t see the Millenium Dome show that accompanied it, so I don’t really have it in context, but then it should stand on its own as a music album. And as it is it’s quite good in parts but with painfully bad tracks here and there (the rap intro and “Father, Son” are the worst, with “Make Tomorrow” a very close runner-up). Of course the instrumentals are delightful in the full Peter Gabriel sense, but the best tracks otherwise are the reprise of “The Time of the Turning/ The Weavers Reel” and “The Tower That Ate People.” But “Downside-Up” has the epiphany-level bit of music of this album…the solid shift from delicate to hurricane as the phrase “pull me in” is tossed from singer to singer is worth cranking your CD player to MAXIMUM volume as soon as you hear the phrase “centripetal force” sung.

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Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.