Customer Reviews

Ovo: Millennium Show

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Fans of Peter Gabriel rejoice! After eight long years, Peter Gabriel finally returns with "OVO," his first release of brand-new music since 1992's "Us." It's a soundtrack album to an acrobatic, Cirque De Soleil-type show exclusively playing at the Millennium Dome in England that Peter Gabriel did the music for. This album is Gabriel's music from the show, featuring not only classic lead vocals from Peter on certain tracks, but excellent guest vocal turns from the likes of Richie Havens, Elizabeth Fraser & Paul Buchanan. And let me tell you, Peter Gabriel fans, this album is *sensational*. Peter runs the whole musical gamut here, from gorgeous ballads (Father, Son) to soaring rock (The Tower That Ate People), from spine-tingling tunes (Downside-Up) to memorable instrumentals (The Nest That Sailed The Sky). Peter even throws in some amazing techno elements, some knockout world music beats, and even a slice of giddy celtic music! "OVO" is simply astonishing from beginning to end. This CD version of "OVO" differs from the Limited Edition version in that the artwork is totally different (but no less eye-popping), there's no bonus illustrated book or bonus CD-ROM disc, and one instrumental track from the Limited Edition version, "The Tree That Went Up," has been replaced by a rap song called "The Story Of OVO," rapped by Neneh Cherry & Roscoe, with excellent music and backing vocals by Gabriel. Otherwise, this version of the album is exactly identical to the Limited Edition version in it's content, and it's no less powerful, either.I think the best compliment that I can pay Peter Gabriel's "OVO" is that, although it's a soundtrack album with guest vocalists, it doesn't *feel* like a soundtrack album. It has the genuine feel of a proper solo release from Gabriel, and, after starving for eight long years for new music from this great genius, "OVO" is simply a godsend. It's only available on import right now for us North American fans, but I guarantee you, it's worth every single penny! So, buy this album, LOVE this album, and tell your friends about it. This could become the biggest-selling import album ever, and why not? A brilliant, sensational musical work from start to finish, "OVO" is a great cause for celebration. Peter Gabriel is BACK---spread the word!

Soothing, comforting, relaxing... BUT POWERFUL! Words are never enough to describe a Peter Gabriel work. And this time around, to provide a musical framework for the Millenium Dome concept, PG has taken the best of the best, musically speaking, to come up with and album of the times.

The concept is beautiful: splitting time in three generations, through which, a family painfully evolves to eventually be redeemed by OVO the little being whose name serves as the album's title. Beauty and metaphors fill this PG work, a lyrical reminder of the seventies' conceptual albums.

He also recruited some of HIS favorite singers for this recording, alternating with them on the vocals, and sometimes serving as a musical mentor and everflowing presence that plays part of the music and comes up with the prettiest musical passages and lyrics.

If you're a die-hard Gabriel fan, I don't have to tell you anything else: you know you've got to get this album. If you aren't, then it's about time you realize how much you've missed. The man is close to his 60s, but it is still not too late.

Sadly, I did not get to see the Millennium Dome show in England. After listening to this album, though, I am desperately trying to obtain a video from the show. First, I must admit that Peter Gabriel could release a recording of himself flushing a toilet, and I would think it was brilliant. Still, Mr. Gabriel has earned this distinction with years of superb music. As a musician myself, I am especially amazed at the directions he is able to follow, and at the neverending pool of inspiration he draws upon. Now, to OVO: I just got the album last week, and have been listening to it several times every day ever since. The music is simply fantastic, with superb orchestration and arrangement. Mr. Gabriel's choices for guest vocalists could not be better. There are so many standouts on this album, it almosts challenges the definition of "standout." "Father, Son" is one of the most poignant and touching songs I have heard in years. I only wish my father was alive to hear it. The B sections on "Downside-Up" and "Make Tomorrow" are some of the coolest jams I have ever heard. It is worth taking out a mortgage to buy a huge sound system just to play this album. I am a little concerned that the rap that introduces this album might put some people off. That said, the underlying groove to this piece can stand on its own (and does in track 4), and the chorus breaks with Peter singing are wonderful. I won't describe every song (which I did this morning in an e-mail I sent my mother, recommending the album). The songs describe themselves, and all are brilliant in their own, unique ways. Peter Gabriel fans probably do not need much convincing to buy this album if they don't already own it. Others who are not familiar with his work should take heed, though. If you can trust a stranger's recommendation for music, then please take this to heart. Not a soul in the world would ever regret purchasing this album.

Peter Gabriel is a brilliant musician who used to come out with new recordings quite frequently. Since his 1992 release of "Us" there was a period of eight years where Peter hadn't released any material. After a very long wait, Gabriel came out with one of the finest recordings I have ever heard. On my first listen, I was misled by the record, because I heard it in the car. "Ovo" is an album that is very good to listen to in a quiet room, preferably in the dark, with high quality headphones. It is a work about the hardships of different generations of a family, having lived through the past, present, and future. The music was written for an acrobatic, dramatic, circus-like preformance celebrating the millenium in the UK. The music very well fits the story in a very interesting way. There is a wide variety of music genres that take place, consisting of rap, atmospheric, Irish, rock, and much more. This album is really not intended to be listened to with cheesy speakers without bass, but the total opposite. Every time I have listend to "Ovo" I always find something new. Peter is great at adding faint sounds to his material, that really end up adding on to the feeling of the music. Before purchasing this album, don't expect lots of vocals from Peter. He has a very unique and dramatic voice, but there are many well known musicians and rising stars filling in for him. Richie Havens has vocals on many of the songs, which really adds on to the emotion of the music. Elizabeth Frazer is a newer very talented and gifted artist that has "Kate Bush" written all over her. There are many other vocalists and musicians that I can not name, but I give full credit to. Buy this album. You will not be dissapointed.

This is yet another recording that is sort of a soundtrack... in a way. yet, the music in places sounds very backgroundish, but let me tell you what, the song FATHER SON is so powerful. makes the purchase of this recording worth the experience in itself.

Downside up is another song that is just great. I feel as though this cd is a mood piece that has two really outstanding songs on it.

If you don't mind mood music or quiet music with odd tempo's and some glorious songs here and there.. this is for you.

I think that the true measure an album's greatness is how often I listen to it and how many tracks I skip over. I bought this album online from RealWorld overseas, the day it became available. I have listened to it countless times in the months since then (over a year now, I think). I never tire of it and I never skip tracks (aside from "The Story of Ovo" on this version).

It's not all Gabriel. He appears on several tracks but not all of them. This is very much a group effort. He has chosen a group of singers each of whose voices is immedately distinctive and beautiful, yet all of whom fit in perfectly with his of music. He did write all the music and lyrics on the album and it shows. From the soft opening notes of "Low Light" (I still want to know what those Gaelic lyrics mean!) until the closing chorus of "Make Tomorrow" this album is Pure Gabriel. In my opinion, it's the best work he's done since "Passion".

If you liked "So", if you absolutely loved "Passion", I think you will love "Ovo" as well. To me, those three albums represent the peaks of Peter Gabriel's solo career.

By the way, if you can, don't buy this version of the album. Buy instead the limited edition version with the red and blue "tower" cover over this version (the one with the green cover). The limited edition wisely dispenses with the terrible "Story Of Ovo" track and dispenses a rap version of it to a separate disc. It's the only bad thing about this version.

'Ovo' is a secular album, but only just. There is no-one in the world as astute as Gabriel in combining every possible strand of world music into a cohesive whole. Beware: the album has to be listened to as a whole, several times, reading the lyrics, to understand it. Also, you have to have recently lost your father, as I have, to feel Father Son as deeply. Yet, Upside Down and Make Tomorrow are amazingly inspirational, and the combination of Irish, Indian and Japanese in one track has this writer shaken to his deepest soul. I listen to 'Ovo' and the intense beauty of the music transports me beyond the mundane. Impossible not to rave about!

I heard brilliance on the first listen. But repeated listens revealed much more at work than a hokey sci-fi generational theme here. Muscially the CD broaches many gernes available in the Gabriel repetroire that he has touched on in the past. The CD has a pan-asian/european theme and certainly sounds written as it was intended-as a soundtrack similiar to something of the Cirque de Soleil performances. It works as both a concept album and a good document of the live performance. Although, its not mixed as a live album. It serves as a good addition to the Peter Gabriel musical vision and I can only hope that he follows through with his new solo album in 2001. I was impressed as well with the talent Peter used on this project. Especially in that he used techno-wunderkind Brian Transeau on some of the albums more anthemic moments. Many of the tracks blend together which always serves as a good continuity device. This is modern art rock at its best. Even the packaging has the ubiqiutous Real World graphic style we've come to associate with Peter's projects. Buy it. It may not hit you all at once, but after a few listens it'll hook into you. I consider it to be on the intellectual and entertainment level of classical music. Thinking man's rock music. Sophisticated and bold.

...actually, this could very well be the best solo record PG has ever done. It is certain that PG just gets better with age. Each record takes something from every one before it, and throws something new and exciting into the mix. The wonderful world music is still heavily present, but it augmented by industrial/techno elements, which are handled masterfully by the hands of PG. There is the complaint that PG doesn't sing enough on this album, but it doesn't really phase me much, because his guest vocalists are spectacular. The finest moment on the album is the epic closing piece, "Make Tomorrow", but the album as a whole holds up very well.(except for the god awful first rap track) If this is any indication of what is to come from PG in the near future, i think we're all in for a real treat. Do yourself a favor and buy this album now!

It took me a few weeks to start appreciating this album, but I now have no doubt that this is an excellent piece of work. At first the rap at the beginning threw me off -- it reminded me why white folks aren't supposed to write rap. (It may be performed by Neneh Cherry and Rasco, but it's still made up of stilted rhyming couplets.) But in the big picture it serves to tell the story of Ovo in the space of a few minutes, and eventually it grew on me. The part of that track where Gabriel sings is one of the many transcendent moments on the album.

Of course the fact that there are other people singing on the album is reason for pause. (I remember asking myself, "who's this joker singing "In the biiiiiig house"...) But that, too, grew on me. His choice of female vocalist is brilliant. She has a very sexy way of pronouncing her syllables: she doesn't merely say "time a' the turning"; she very distinctly sings "time oF THe turning," with the word "the" rolling off her tongue. It sounds like a silly detail, but if you hear it, you'll know the difference.

What is really remarkable about this album is the way Gabriel fits so many different musical styles together. Passion was notable enough in this regard, but on Ovo the continent-hopping is taken a step further. One of the songs seamlessly morphs from a vigorous Scottish reel into something Arabic and finally ends with African drumming: it will leave you stunned. It makes the musical tricks Sting plays on "Fill Her Up" (with rock/gospel/jazz) pale in comparison.

"Low Light" is another gem on this album. The song starts out like something from Pink Floyd's Division Bell -- an odd distinction, but it works -- and then gives way to a haunting Celtic vocal. If you thought Celtic song was corny or hokey, this song is very likely to change your mind. And then there is "Father, Son" and "The Tower that Ate People" -- both excellent, but ultimately less interesting since they are more predictable.

Look. We all know this is not the album we've been waiting for. It's a soundtrack, and it does seem a bit incongruous at times. But despite this fact, it ends up succeeding brilliantly. Click on the button and buy this album. It is completely worth it.