Security

Peter Gabriel

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1982
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000000OMC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,451 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
After three eponymous discs noteworthy for their thematic richness and musical experimentation, Peter Gabriel yielded to conventional wisdom by actually titling this 1982 successor. In every other respect, however, Security was another stride beyond the progressive rock terrain Gabriel had explored from Genesis forward. Most crucially, he goes deeper into the heart of world music, and further investigates the African sources first invoked on the prior album's magisterial track, "Biko." Security is steeped in polyrhythms, sculpted with synthesizers, and detailed with percussive textures set to a low boil beneath Gabriel's yearning vocals. Its themes of transcendence and identity, and contrasts of modern isolation with primordial community, reverberate through "Lay Your Hands On Me," "I Have the Touch," "The Rhythm of the Heat," and "San Jacinto." And in "Shock the Monkey," the set's initial hit, Gabriel portentously stands dance rhythms on their head in a troubling, funny riff on the mammal within. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MOM!!!!! PETER GABRIEL SCARED ME!!!!!!!!, October 14, 2004

By	ewomack "ewomack" (MN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Security (Audio CD)

Here is Gabriel's most distinctive and scariest album. Just look at the cover. Here lies the first warning. The nightmarish washed out photo negative image of what looks like a ritualistic African mask seems trapped in an eternal primordial hiss. Next listen to the sounds. The big drums on Gabriel's previous album sounded big, but on "Security" they become even bigger and pound directly into your being. Like African rhythms on steriods the beats creshendo and diminish in waves akin to a psychotic roller coaster ride. The effect makes for a disturbing gut-wrenching and beautiful listen.

Most, if not all, of the drums receive electronic treatments. Gabriel didn't perform field recordings of Ghanese drummers and overdub vocals for a reason. The primordial meets the modern on this album. We in the west are modern and seemingly "civilized" but under all of our efforts, technology and supposed progress lie the deep ineffable mysteries of human nature. African drumming in general can evoke the preternatural (which makes some sense considering that many theorize the beginning of humanity in the continent of Africa) and on "Security" Gabriel attempts to bridge electronic music with those blurry elements of existence. An homage to our unavoidable humanity that underlies all we do. The businessman in the jungle. The warrior in the Board room. Gabriel arguably succeeded in evoking such things with amazing success.

Right from the first almost silent noises of "The Rhythm of the Heat" (the long fade up could represent a creation or a birth; Gabriel's first wail could be humanity arriving on the scene). The song moves along like a musical sweat lodge building building until the intensity stretches beyond the envelope and suddenly... release. Quick breaths to a prolonged sigh. A journal entry of Carl Jung's supposedly inspired this track. An exhausting opener. "San Jacinto" seems to depict the fading of Native American culture from the inside perspective. It shares the theme of perserverance in seemingly insurmoutable challeneges with "Wallflower". "I Have The Touch" and "Lay Your Hands on Me" both scream out for physical contact with other human beings. The modern imagery juxtaposed with the yearning for contact evoke our modern dilemma of isolation and almost irrational fear of rubbing flesh with others in every day situations. "Shock the Monkey" was a surprising hit. It sounded like almost nothing else on the radio waves in 1982, but it introduced Gabriel to a large audience. MTV nearly wore out the amazing music video (which still stands up today) which couldnt've hurt sales and exposure. Somewhat strange considering that "Security" doesn't ring like a sell-out or an obvious or ostentatious commercial effort in any way. The happiest and most hopeful song ends the album. "Kiss of Life" celebrates life and will get any pair of indolent feet moving.

"Security" stands strong beside Gabriel's best work. The album may take some time to sink in, but once it does it will never emerge again. It's a hard one to shake off. Gabriel would not explore such territory until "Up" many years later. "Security" has to be one of the darkest, most unnerving but uplifting, catchy and unforgettable pop albums ever.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Believe the hype..., April 9, 2005

By	Careful Critic (Lexington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Security (Audio CD)

Here's the simplest way to "get" this record:
1) Buy it.
2) Turn off the lights (candles would be fine)
3) Crank it up.
4) Beginning to end.
5) And you'll be SO glad you did.

Security is eight tracks of the most lush and thunderous perfection ever recorded, a momentous journey of rhythm, sound and passion likely unparalleled in the history of music. I simply cannot imagine any human being with taste not being blown away by this album. (And, in fact, I've never encountered one - people who were initially annoyed have then thanked me profusely for forcing them to shut up and LISTEN to this. And then raced out and bought their own copies.)

If lyrics are your thing, there's plenty to enjoy here - it's actually a very political record, but think "human" politics rather than "government" politics. Perhaps "existential" would be a better word? And yet, rather amazingly, the album actually provides a wonderful "happy ending" that entirely works.

But it's the music that makes this. It's thick and lush, tribal and primal, and esquisitely percussive. It's more about the bottom end, down in the bass range, than the thinner top above (left largely to his voice), a record you will FEEL as it alternately thunders and crawls and soars. The detail in the remaster does this recording fine justice - the bells in "San Jacinto" are utterly heavenly.

My favorite music, personally, is music rife with tension that builds to fabulous crescendo. Some other reviewers below have pointed out that some tracks are "too long." I'd earnestly disagree. Each of the eight tracks is a perfectly-paced escalation of tension into release, and their length should be savored as exactly that. ("Family and the Fishing Net" would perhaps be THE standout, but you've got to LISTEN to it, as a process of brilliant congealing, to "get it.")

So are their any caveats? Yeah, it's not nearly so practical for "casual" listening (though great for nighttime driving). And definitely do NOT settle for a used copy of the pre-remastered version. The previous master had grown really long-in-the-tooth, almost to an unlistenable extent, and the remaster brings it back up to speed with the recording quality you're used to, and that this record deserves.

Ultimately, if you take the plunge, you will find this truly an unforgettable and irreplacable experience. Eight tracks of flawlessness, and one of the most visionary and utterly perfect albums ever made.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant -- Every Home MUST Have One!, January 1, 2001

By	Gavin Wilson - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

You don't have a well-rounded CD collection if you haven't got 'Passion' and 'Security', both by Peter Gabriel. Why is 'Security' -- known as 'Peter Gabriel 4' in Europe -- so important?

1. It is a definitive hi-fi test album. If ever you buy a new component for your hi-fi, take this CD along to the shop, and test the opening track, 'Rhythm of the Heat'. Many low-quality components cannot cope with the bass boom that invades after the first Gabriel wail. This music, which first appeared on LP, had been waiting for the added clarity and impact of CD.

2. Gabriel was one of the first artists to master the complex Fairlight synthesizer. Here he creates a whirlpool of musical disorientation -- for example, the overwhelming swirling drums and percussion of the opening track, the modified marimba and eerie woodwind sounds in 'San Jacinto'.

3. This album is the fulfilment of Gabriel's departure from Genesis, some eight years earlier. Gabriel could never have stayed within the band and trodden the psychological path that took him to this masterpiece.

If you've seen the film 'Birdy', some of this album will seem strangely familiar. Gabriel took the best tunes from this and the third album, re-worked them into instrumental versions, and created, in at least one reviewer's view, an even better album.

At the time of writing this review, only 14 other reviews of the album are filed here on amazon. I don't understand why it gets so little attention when Passion, his other masterpiece, has 103 reviews. Both are equally magnificent.