'Scratch My Back' album release due on January 25th 2010

 

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm76/blissfulignorance_2008/smb_incase.jpg

 

Peter Gabriel will release his 'Scratch My Back' album on January 25th 2010 on Virgin Records in the U.K.

 

To help craft his recording of the album's eclectic array of cult favourites and classic tracks, Peter enlisted former Durutti Column member John Metcalfe as composer/arranger and the expertise of producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', Lou Reed's 'Berlin') and engineer, mixer and producer Tchad Blake (Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Tom Waits).

 

Peter describes this as a very personal record with twelve songs performed only with orchestral instruments and voice. The album's richly diverse sounds include the sparse romance of Lou Reed's 'The Power of the Heart', the powerful musical journey of Elbow's 'Mirrorbal' and an epic arrangement of Arcade Fire's 'My Body Is A Cage.'

 

Peter and his collaborators recorded the album at George Martin's Air Lyndhurst Studios and the Real World Temple with further editing and mixing at his own Real Worlds Studios in Wiltshire. The first public hearing of the album came when Peter opened his set at last summer's WOMAD Charlton Park festival with a performance of Paul Simon's 'The Boy In The Bubble.'

 

The track-list and running order as follows:

 

Heroes (David Bowie)

The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon)

Mirrorball (Elbow)

Flume (Bon Iver)

Listening Wind (Talking Heads)

The Power of the Heart (Lou Reed)

My Body is a Cage (Arcade Fire)

The Book of Love (The Magnetic Fields)

I Think it's Going to Rain Today (Randy Newman)

Apres Moi (Regina Spektor)

Philadelphia (Neil Young)

Street Spirit (Radiohead)

 

Good choice of covers - and what stunning artwork, too :heart:

 

Indeed. Very sad that David Bowie has made himself unable to participate, as I could easily imagine him tackling Peter Gabriel's D.I.Y. or The Intruder.

 

This should be a very interesting album (the musical equivalent of Come Dine With Me :rofl:).

I've been a huge fan of Peter Gabriel for many years (I first saw him live on his first solo tour) so I'm looking forward to this. The choice of Boy in the Bubble is interesting. Many people credit Paul Simon with introducing African music to the world but PG's album So used the same influences several months before that.

Good to have something new from him. Sounds interesting.