Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK
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INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Mojo NOVEMBER 2013 - by Mat Snow

PETER GABRIEL: AND I'LL SCRATCH YOURS

Right back atcha - the stars return the compiiment.

Boasting neither Laughing Gnomes nor Guilty Pleasures, pensiveness ruled on Peter Gabriel's 2010 covers album Scratch My Back where he sumptuously Gabrielised songs ranging from the vintage likes of David Bowie to newbies like Elbow and Bon Iver. In turn, Gabriel invited each artist to hit him back; three years on, all but Neil Young, Radiohead and Bowie have obliged. Eno deputises for the latter with a balls-out account of Mother Of Violence, realising the original's latent threat. Conversely, but no less effectively, Randy Newman declutters the So groover Big Time to reveal the Randy-like groaner within - a rare find in a songbook more noted for cryptic allusion than transparency of meaning. Enjoyable, though less revelatory, Arcade Fire's Games Without Frontiers, Joseph Arthur's agonised Shock The Monkey and Lou Reed's jokily grindscaping Solsbury Hill contrast with Paul Simon's restrained Biko.


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