Us is the sixth studio album by the English singer-songwriter and musician Peter Gabriel,released on 28 September 1992 by Real World Records and Geffen Records. Following the release of his soundtrack album Passion in 1989,Gabriel started work on new material for a new album,his first since So,which became his biggest selling release. Gabriel focused on personal themes on Us,including his divorce in the late 1980s,his subsequent relationship with actress Rosanna Arquette,and the growing distance between him and his first daughter.[10]
Us was promoted with an early form of interactive multimedia software for Macintosh computers entitled Xplora1:Peter Gabriel's Secret World,which featured several music videos from the album. The album was a worldwide chart success,reaching No. 2 in the UK and the US and the top-ten in twelve other countries. Four singles were released:"Digging in the Dirt","Steam","Blood of Eden",and "Kiss That Frog",with "Steam" reaching No. 10 in the UK. Gabriel supported the album with his Secret World Tour in 1993 and 1994 which was documented on the Secret World Live album and same-titled concert film,both released in 1994. Us was remastered with the rest of his back catalogue in 2002.
Background
In an interview with New Musical Express published in June 1989,Gabriel mentioned that he intended for his next release after Passion to be either a concept album or two separate releases,with one oriented around "melody and atmosphere" and another with an emphasis on "rhythm and dance".[11] In October 1989,Gabriel started work on songs which would end up on the Us album. During that time,he was concurrently preparing new versions of songs for the 1990 compilation album Shaking the Tree:Sixteen Golden Greats and supervising the editing of 1987 concert footage shot in Greece,which was released in 1990 as the live video album POV.[10]
Through 1991 and into June 1992,he focused on composing and recording the Us album,mainly at his own Real World Studios in Wiltshire,England,with specialised recording sessions held at Kingsway Studios in New Orleans,and Studio 2000 in Dakar. Daniel Lanois co-produced the album with Gabriel,with support from David Bottrill in programming and engineering. The final album ended up being almost 58 minutes long,substantially longer than all his earlier releases which adhered to the 46-minute limit of the analog 12-inch vinyl LP.[10]
Typically,Gabriel started off songs in the studio with a rhythm pattern - usually a loop,a programmed drum pattern or both combined. To the drum pattern,he would improvise chords on piano &keyboards and ad-lib some vocals,with the performance captured onto DAT for reference.[12] Gabriel would also listen back to the captured performances,to which he would play along on his keyboard rig and inspire further ideas. Like on So,Lanois and David Rhodes occasionally played guitar alongside Gabriel during these early stages. Gradually,Gabriel arrived at a rough structure of the given song,and from there he'd start involving other musicians.[12]
Gabriel held two sets of full-band sessions with his studio line-up,including Lanois,Rhodes,bassist Tony Levin and drummer Manu Katché. For the first sessions in October 1990,Katchéhad an African percussion kit setup with Gabriel's old bass drum,[13] whereas he used a standard drum kit for the second sessions the following year.[12] The musicians were given freedom to develop their own parts within the song structure. Subsequently,Gabriel continued to refine the songs in the studio,tweaking the song structure,melodies and lyrics until satisfied. Typically,Botrill would assemble a song structure on tape via transferring elements from several multitrack tapes;this process was repeated when Gabriel came up with newer ideas that required them to restructure the composition. Over the course of the two-and-a-half-year recording sessions for Us,each song usually went through three to four structures before Gabriel finalised them.[12]
When assembling the liner notes,Gabriel decided to solicit the help different artists to create accompanying visuals for each song on the album.[15] To promote Us,Virgin Records launched a marketing campaign using these commissioned pieces of artwork.[16] The artwork was also showcased at the Art 93 London Contemporary Art Fair.[17]
Us received generally positive reviews from critics. Writing for the Chicago Tribune,Greg Kot stated the album's "opaque melodies and exotic rhythms reward the patient listener,but not without a struggle."[20] The Los Angeles Times awarded the album three-and-a-half stars out of four and praised Gabriel's ability to integrate elements of world music into an art rock style.[3] In a combined review of So,Us,and Up,Record Collector gave the album four stars out of five and called it an "underrated,rewarding listen".[24]
↑ "Discos de Oro y Platino". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia′s Music Charts 1988–2010. Mount Martha, Melbourne, Victoria: Moonlight Publishing.
↑ "Nielsen SoundScan". nielsen.com. Search for "Us" by Peter Gabriel. 2005 Data: 1,600,000 Sold Units in the United States. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
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