Peter Gabriel has never been happy to rest on his laurels and produce mediocre material, something that few of his contemporaries could boast. Again he returns with a powerful, challenging, emotional album of songs that will be welcomed for their depth and power.

There is much here that will be familiar to his fans. The big drum tracks, fluid bass playing and emotive asmopherics. And of course there is Gabriel's voice which can range from cunning cynicism to frail vulnerability and everything between and beyond these extremes. But it is hardly a safe album. In feel many of the tracks hark back to his earliest solo work, before he entered the world of hit singles and million sellers. There are also many unexpected twists to the music that make for fascinating listening. An example is the upbeat switch in "I Grieve". In no way does he pander to the commercial considerations that hamstring so many successful artists.

The album is a solid reminder of why Peter Gabriel deserves his every success, something which it will no doubt guarantee him.

A triumph!!

I have listened to UP closely 50 or more times and saw Gabriel's recent show at the MCI Arena in Washington, D.C. The arena was far from sold out, with the average age of those in attendance being about 48. Sales of the album are going slowly, too. UP is not listed on Billboard's top 100 album chart.

Yet with UP, Gabriel finally does what I hoped he would do since I discovered him in 1974: he has given his dedicated fans a work of art that stands above all his previous releases perhaps even including those from Genesis three decades ago.

I can understand why Rolling Stone magazine would give this CD two stars. (Rolling Stone also gave "Selling England By the Pound" two stars upon its release in 1973). I was tempted to give UP two stars after buying it and surviving the first abrasive burst of guitar on the opening cut "Darkness." That and Tony Levin's persistent, penetrating bass that can drown out an unlearned melody were almost enough to turn my family into a covey of Gabriel haters. I've never had so many people yelling at me in unison to turn down the stereo.

I still don't much care for David Rhodes's initial guitar work on "Darkness." However, once you get to know it in the context of the song, it works exceedingly well, along with every bit of "Darkness," a masterpiece and the closest Gabriel has come to his seminal work on "The Battle of Epping Forest" or "Broadway Melody of 1974."

UP is not perfect, but perfect is hard to find -- perhaps only existing in one album that I know of: Sgt. Peppers from the Beatles. But I firmly believe that UP is as close to perfection as Gabriel has come in his solo career.

Having just re-listened to "Selling England" and "The Lamb," I have to say that the vocal virtuosity on UP exceeds both by a long shot. Take a close listen to "Growing Up" with "one dot, that's on or off, defines what is and what is not, one dot..." and you'll hear something resembling "and Harold Demure, who's still not quite sure, fires acorns from out of his sling. Here comes the cavalry!" It is the first time in Gabriel's solo career that he has approached the vocal skill exhibited with Genesis.

While the opening guitar riff on "Darkness" has killed sales of UP, that demented riff means diehard Gabriel fans have Gabriel to ourselves again. Welcome back Peter. You left us for a long time and while we've loved your music between "PG-1" and "Us" (including "Passion"), UP ties you back to Lamb, England, Cryme and Foxtrot and what made us love you so much in the first place. You can't get much better than UP. You just can't.

Some of the most beautiful songs Gabriel has ever written are on UP, and despite its initial lack of commercial success, songs like Growing Up, More Than This, Sky Blue, I Grieve, and Signal to Noise could be getting tons of air play. They are pop tunes that are deftly cloaked in Gabriel's techno-industrial mutators, reverse strings, telecasters, loop manipulations, JamMans, MPC grooves, sampled guitars and wonky nords. (What are all these instruments? I remember he used to play the flute and oboe.)

If Gabriel "regresses" next year with a "So" -- so as to regain his commercial footing -- well, that's fine because with UP Gabriel has provided nourishment for his long-term fan base. He has solidified us for life with this album. We are at your mercy, Mr. Gabriel, because on UP you have written songs that nobody else could ever have created; songs like Lillywhite Lillith that will age beautifully and gain in stature.

Gabriel's record label won't be able to generate substantial sales for UP -- that will come through word of mouth and perhaps through people like us buying the CD as gifts for our grown children and others, explaining to the lucky recipients that it will take a few spins before they can understand the logic. We'll tell them that it's complicated music that might sound abrasive at first and will require active participation. We'll tell them that once they've gotten to know the melodies that they need to print out the lyrics and read along. We'll say: "You will find refrains that will blow you sideways and off your feet, such as: 'Don't leave us, don't leave us like this.' " They will discover Gabriel's poetry: "The world is turning to noise and the more that it surrounds us, the more that it destroys." They will find that Gabriel is able to combine Middle Eastern and African rhythm with Western classical symphony in its best tradition in a cascading climax on "Signal to Noise." Even the small songs will grow on them like "My Head Sounds Like That," a cut worthy in every way to be included in this collection. They'll get to appreciate the range of Gabriel's voice, and his willingness to expose its vulnerabilities such as on "The Drop."

Somehow, us older folks need to entice youngsters to get started on a journey that they will have to travel backwards through Peter Gabriel's artistic life. Today's 16-year-olds were infants when "So" was released in 1986. PG-1 was released almost three decades ago. That's a long time. Imagine in 1969 listening to music that was produced in 1939? If the real buying audience of teenagers latch onto such a line as "My ghost likes to travel, so far in the unknown..." they will be converts, and Gabriel's next tour will be a sell-out.

It will take work to get the next generation to go back deeply in time to discover the link between UP and Gabriel's brilliance with Genesis. But to get to the Lamb, Selling England, Cyrme and Foxtrot, they have to start someplace, preferably with UP. It's a place worth starting.

There are a lot of smart, articulate reviews here and they deserve being acknowledged. However there are two other styles driving me nuts. People fawning over Up as if it is the best thing to happen to music since....uhm, music and their polar opposites, the ones that can't forgive it for not sounding like So or Us.

First, Peter Gabriel's first three albums explored a lot of musicial territories, most of them dark and brooding. All of them mildly to highly experimental at times. Of these three most fans agree the third "aka: melting face" album was the one that really broke Peter Gabriel as a substantial talent and shed reason on why he left Genesis.

It was bold, set new standards of sound both in quality and timbre and created new music genres. It also introduced things like the Fairlight synthesizer and gated drums. If that term is not familiar listen to "Intruder" from that album and you'll hear the sound of 80's drum sounds. The Fairlight was a computer based sample playback device that could examine sounds and put them together with a lot of different sound qualities. This was one of the first samplers which also are quite popular in music today. However the album was so different that his record company dropped him. Thankfully he found another to distribute it.

Based on this tradition of new technology, blurring the lines of distinction between music styles, sounds and new technical advances PG continued with his 4th album, Security, one of the few recordings done completely digital that didn't sound terrible and bright. The Fairlight was back as were African drum troupes and exotic percussion.

That's the short history. Then came So, a glossy production with several bright and happy songs that were radio friendly and still not a sell out. It broke Peter Gabriel as a commercial artist. Having gotten that out of his system he tried to reconsile the darkness of previous albums in particular Security and some of the commercial incinations of So winding up with the album Us.

To me this is his weakest and monochromatic album. There is a Sledgehammer re-write, Steam, there are certainly some good songs such as Come Talk To Me and Digging In The Dirt, but there is a lot of dense and insular material on this album.

Fast forward to 2002 and we have Up. It has managed to polarize many listeners which is always the sign of something different. It is a dark and sad place mostly but it is a creative examination of life, relationships and grief from an adult perspective.

Up is not a commercial album. It is similarly dense in a way that Us wasn't. Here there is variety. Some listeners may need to spin this CD several times to hear it but it's there. The opening track "Darkness" conveys the claustraphobic and explosive nature of someone in thought. It does so with an almost industrial styled segment of guitar blasts alternating between quiet, you can almost hear a pin drop dynamics in the verses. I hear John Lennon's ghost on this track at times, like a weird Beatles side project that no one would know about.

"Darkness" typifies the album's themes of provoking musical dynamics and introspective lyrics. Also good to hear is PG using his vocal range again. Not simply belting out songs or using soft/loud dynamics but getting back to the different personas found in his work on Genesis' "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". It's not theatrical this time but it is dramatic.

Listen to "Growing Up" for a glimpse of this kind of drama. Actually much of the album is sung dramatically and unlike so many singers that attempt to copy the idea, Gabriel is still the one who does it best and with great taste.

Many have slammed "The Barry Williams Show" and this is typical of critics that decide that a seven plus minute song is:
1. the "single"
2. the commercial song - to a degree it's one of the faster paced and more immediately catchy tracks

My problem is this. If anyone but Peter Gabriel does this song most would enjoy it, but because he dares to think like you or I that is a bad thing. He's a great musician but he's not god. "The Barry Williams Show" is still a good listen, Up might be a somber album but you don't need take to take it so seriously on every song.

For the initiated Up is not So or Us. It is it's own album and not created to thrill you. It isn't hard to anticipate that Mr. Gabiel is making an album for himself and his record company is hoping you'll like it too. For the uninitiated there are sounds of modern aspects of music such as industrial and techno electronica mixed with simmering, at times progressive rock music. They are like an instrument however, not dictating to song but a frequent, subtle shade. This is a smart album and an uncompromising one that expects listeners to actually pay attention and not turn it on at a party. That's no knock as I enjoy fun music too but I enjoy being challenged and I am impressed when someone is willing to share thoughts that challenge me as an adult.

If you think you are up to it this is a great album that will repay your time with rewards most rock albums can't. If you are a musician this is a must as it is a study in restraint and compositional arrangement.

In summary. So/Us fans, get over it. Old time fans, get it and if it's not happening for you because of the modern spin and use of instrumentation from areas you don't like or understand trust the artist. This is excellent music. And if you are looking for something a little different no matter what kind of music you listen to try Up.

Prediction; this will be considered more highly as time goes on.

"Up" sees Gabriel going beyond the pop perfection of "So" and the cacophonous World Music fusion of "Us" into territory both stunningly new and wonderfully familiar. Reasserting his art-rock origins, he delivers a marvellously non-commercial album reminiscent of his earlier work - only better. It's as if the challenging, experimental Gabriel of the early `80s has been teleported into a twenty-first-century studio which at last has the technology to do justice to his vision. The opener, `Darkness', plays like an out-take from "Security" finally given the lush, sophisticated treatment it deserves. What follows, in track after track, is amazing: orchestral strings colliding with walls of confronting rhythms; layers of electronica and percussion vying with David Rhodes' masterful guitars. And all the while creeping up on you from beneath the oppressive rhythms and layers of liquid sound, waiting to slip out and surprise you like old friends, are Gabriel's trademark piano (as always, sounding for all the world like it's coming from an abandoned warehouse across the street) and his uniquely expressive, yearningly imperfect voice. The result is a rich, powerful and confronting soundscape perfectly attuned to the dark-yet-hopeful lyrics. Undoubtedly, "Up" won't please everybody. There's no easily accessible radio-gold here like `Sledgehammer' (though `More Than This' would make a fine single), nor anything quite like the peerless `Mercy Street'. But for dedicated listeners there's plenty on "Up" to love. It's big, dark and mysteriously beautiful. It's Gabriel at his grimmest, and very close to his best.

I have listened to this absolutely amazing effort from Peter Gabriel (10 years in coming), a few dozen times since getting it. This is the best album from ANY rock/pop artist I've heard in years. From beginning to end, though a down (not up) trip along the way, Gabriel takes us on a journey into the man's soul. Masterpiece!

1) Darkness - Promise of things to come. Starts off slow and mellow, then bursts into this frantic, almost frightening music and vocals. Back then to the slower stuff, every note sung with passion and anger and confusion and sadness and tales of lost innocence and hope for rebirth.

2) Growing Up - Fans of Gabriel's previous two albums will find much to like here. A hypnotic beat, effects, cross-singing, cross-lyrics, pounding drums, all add to the essence of the creativity he stretches the music here with. "My Ghost Likes to Travel, so far in the unknown, so deep into your space..." That lick will certainly stay in one's head long after the music's over.

3) Sky Blue - This song features a roller coaster ride between "up" and down. Reminds me a bit of Gabriel's earlier work and some with Genesis. Behind all the sadness, there is hope. Gabriel's voice in backup remind one of Phil Collins. How did he pull that off?

4) No Way Out - The production values on this even exceeds those of the first three. Amazing. Great guitar work. Backwards music, and echo and a driving beat from some jungle in some distant land. Halfway in, the song increases in intensity to a multitracked, heavy beat finale with heavy electronic effects.

5) I Greive - Probably one of the best songs on the album. This is a revamped edition of a song used on the movie soundtrack to "City of Angels." I loved it then, I love it so much more now. If the slower parts of this song don't bring a tear to one's eyes, check if you're human.

6) The Barry Williams Show - No, having nothing to do with the Brady Bunch character but about a fictional media exploitation type afternoon talk show host, and about the larger issues involved. Dehumanization. Though pop-ish compared to the rest, it's still a gem. Again, Gabriel's backups sound like Phil.

7) My Head Sounds Like That - More slow tempo and "down," but with weird "breaks" into something totally different, as in the first track. This song reminds me of what John Lennon might be offering us these days, had he lived. A very dark song, Gabriel's voice shines.

8) More Than This - Some heavy effects and good bass lines. Bits of buzzed out electronica. Weird. The changes in tempo are all over the map, like some old Genesis pre-Lamb tracks we never got to hear. A great song, and totally weird in some parts.

9) Signal to Noise - Orchestral piece, but it doesn't stay that way forever, nor throughout. As with EVERY song on this piece of art, Gabriel surprises in switches of direction just when you least expect it. This is emotional stuff, and like the whole album, pieces of it will stick with you for a long time. Builds to the most powerful ending of any song on the work with heavy beating drums, lush strings and shifting moods of both down, and up. The last few minutes sound very Genesis-like, especially the Phil Collins like-sounding drums.

10) The Drop - The shortest song (about 3 minutes) on a long single album (around 70 minutes), Peter wraps everything up with a slow and melodic plaintiff reach for closure and hope. Excellent piano work, which Peter's voice often follows, note to note. "One by one, you watch them fall, and wonder where they're falling to?"

UP perhaps? Because for all the darkness, sadness and slow, reflective "down" songs on this album, there are equal parts of the exact opposite. They only begin to dawn on one after repeated listens however. Is Pete in a sour mood here, depressed as hell and needing some strong meds? I don't think so. I think this is a tiny look into one man's pain and struggle to rise above and around it. Not an easy task.

This is the type of progressive music I wish Phil and company were still making, intelligent, compelling every step and note along the way. This will not go down easily for some of Gabriel's "hits" fans at first, but don't believe any negative reviews. This album absolutely demands repeated listens, on headphones to get the full effect. Best Peter Gabriel album ever, hands down and a winner from beginning to end. This music puts 99 percent of other music "popular" nowadays to total shame. And you're never going to hear any of this on the radio anytime soon, that's for damn sure. But that's okay, this is something you just have to own.

Thanks, Pete. You've given me hours of fantastic musical entertainment, adventures, intelligent, intellectual challenges, and I can't stop playing it. I'd give it six stars if possible. There isn't a bad track or misstep the whole way through. I am overwhelmed and mere words will never do justice to this. An instant and enduring classic, sure to give me hundreds more hours of amazing musical explorations. Just an astonishing album, in so many ways. Fans of Gabriel's earlier work and that with Genesis (especially Lamb) will absolutely love this. Those who don't "get" it, in my view, just need to put the whole CD on repeat mode and allow the magic here to do it's thing.

Absolutely amazing!