Record Details - RecordDB

Record ID 1256

Artist Peter Gabriel

Title Ovo

Field / Genre Rock

Year Recorded 2000

Label RealWorld

Pressing Aus

Rating ***

Discs 1

Media CD

Date Bought 14 Aug 2000

Cost ¤27.00

Cover Name —

Review In 1997, Peter Gabriel was asked to pilot a visual project for London's Millennium Dome. OVO is a work based on the intersecting problems of race relations, environmental concerns, family issues, and fairy tales as allegories, violence, and more. And keep in mind that this was to be a visual piece. Gabriel, to meet the challenge for CD, added a ton of multimedia to the musical soundtrack: there is a drawn storybook, The Story of OVO, a view of the installation itself from every angle, and many stopgap notes, drawings, and the like. For the soundtrack, he enlisted the help of collaborators such as Elizabeth Fraser, Neneh Cherry (whatever happened to her third record, the one she did with Tricky?), Richie Havens, the Black Dyke Mills Band, the Electra Strings, Paul Buchanan (of Blue Nile), Adzido, the Dhol Foundation drummers, and Iarla Ó Lionáird from the Afro-Celt Sound System. Needless to say, the music is all over the map, from a rap version of the "Story of Ovo" to an Irish jig to Gabriel's percussive culture plundering soundscapes and new songs (including a truly dull rework of "Digging in the Dirt") to Eno-like ambiences to folk songs and new songs with Havens and Ó Lionáird singing like the opposite ends of a heavenly choir and Liz Fraser soaring over the Dhol Foundation drummers. It sounds awesome doesn't it? It should be. But it's not. OVO sounds labored, choppy, and pasted together, like it is the soundtrack to a visual installation, and feels incomplete without it. This is not a project like Passion was or even Birdy; it's a pastiche that attempts to be as ambitious as the installation project. And it is ambitious. Unfortunately, musically it isn't consistent enough to sustain the listener's interest for the entire length of the recording. It is a curious project with moments, but is most likely for hardcore fans only.— Thom Jurek<hr/>Geffen A&R; executive Tony Berg was quoted a few years back as suggesting that Peter Gabriel should call his next album Peter Gabriel Makes Grown Men Cry. To this day, I'm not exactly sure how he meant that. Either: #1: Gabriel's songs have apparently continued to be so heart-wrenchingly emotional that men still shed tears simply at the sound of his voice. #2: He's such an anal perfectionist that it's taken him years to craft his latest studio album, and fans, as well as record execs, weep with frustration. As for the frustration thing, it's been eight years, and Gabriel still hasn't finished it. 2000, however, did see the release of a new UK-only Peter Gabriel record titled OVO: The Millennium Show. The album is technically a soundtrack to the disastrous Millennium Dome show that occurred in England a year ago. Just as Geffen attempted to convince the public that Beck's Mutations was not an "official" follow-up to Odelay, OVO is being deemed "not the official follow-up to 1992's Us". So, what's a fan to do, except simply take this as consolation for four-fifths of a decade of waiting? For one, they can hope that the real album is better. OVO has its moments, sure, but it's also fairly inconsistent. The sentiment and plot—yes, there's a plot—is, in fact, so hackneyed it's hard to believe that Berg Implication #1 could be the case. Despite all this, Gabriel does at times come through: a little over half of the record ranks alongside his early 90s work. Had the rest been cut, OVO's runtime would weigh in at 20 minutes less, but because they're all here, their mediocrity preserved in plastic for all time, the album's pitfalls prevent it from gaining consistency and cohesiveness. According to the liner notes, Gabriel has recruited some of his "favourite voices" to sing the bulk of OVO's material. The female presence is welcome; like Kate Bush and Sinéad O'Connor before them, Iarla O Lionaird and the Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser provide a lovely, sensual atmosphere to their cuts. When Richie Havens and Paul Buchanan pop up, though, it's unclear why Gabriel, whose vocals would have lent themselves infinitely better to these songs, didn't just sing them himself."The Story of OVO" opens the album with promising, ethnically rich accompaniment, until Rasco (??) and Neneh Cherry start rapping. In the more than thirty years Peter Gabriel has been recording, he's never before written a rap, and it becomes clear immediately: "A long time ago in a far away land/ There was a man/ Who learned to understand." The Gabriel-sung chorus and the rhythmic closing almost make the trite lyrics worth enduring. Okay, they don't. But that's somewhat easily forgiven with a casual press of the 'skip' button. The first half's only major standout, "Low Light", follows with a beautiful ambient feel and an intro previewing the orchestral melody of a later track, the musically stunning "Downside-Up". "The Time of the Turning" sounds nice initially, but ultimately reveals itself as mediocre, with Havens and Fraser taking lead vocals on a generally forgettable melody. "The Weavers' Reel" pairs a reprise of "Turning" with a formulaic, lifeless Celtic reel, augmented with an unforgivably cheesy dance beat. And "Father, Son" attempts to go the way of Gabriel's previous ballads, but with such a saccharine sentiment and ordinary melody, it goes the way of elevator music. It's after this track that the line of demarcation from indifference to actual greatness becomes apparent, since the next song sets a new standard of quality which is ultimately fulfilled by OVO's remainder. "The Tower That Ate People" is Gabriel's funkiest track since "Sledgehammer", with growling verse vocals, phased guitars, overdriven organ, and a gorgeously haunting bridge melody. "Revenge" follows flawlessly with a breathtakingly strong, layered rhythm by African drum group The Dhol Foundation. And the 10-minute closing collaboration with electronic artist BT, "Make Tomorrow", is consistently enjoyable throughout its extravagant running time, bearing enough melodic and tonal changes to keep the listener interested. But the best track by far arrives just before the ending. "Downside-Up" is, melodically, one of the best songs in Gabriel's entire catalog—and it was a damn strong catalog to begin with. The banal lyrics keep it from joining the ranks of his other classics, but the fluidity and richness of the chorus melody, and the skilled, outstanding guitar line that enters at the bridge, makes it a strong contender.OVO should nicely tide over you longtime fans until the eventual release of the forthcoming Up. It's inconsistent, though, and at times overbearingly trite, but it does contain some surprisingly effective material. If nothing else, the $30 import tag is a better bargain for the obsessive fan than a plane ticket to Britain.— Spencer Owen, Pitchfork

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