17 Dec 2009 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: Entertainment

Albums of the Decade: No.4

Ovo by Peter Gabriel

“And everything that I relied on disappeared”

See? I wanted something to really represent the decade, and what could do that better than something to do with the millennium celebrations? Seriously though, if one thing was salvaged from the whole “Dome” thing (apart from learning never to put governments in charge of entertainment), it was the centrepiece show, with this fabulous soundtrack by Peter Gabriel. Released as Ovo, it brought together everything that Gabriel had been doing for the past 15 years. It combines English and Celtic influences with Asian, African and even Australian and European sounds …and how many albums can show off musicians as diverse as the Dhol Foundation and the Black Dyke Band, with vocals from the likes of Neneh Cherry, Elizabeth Fraser and Alison Goldfrapp?

Curiously, Ovo doesn’t seem like a soundtrack, more like a regular studio album. The only giveaway is the opening rap number, an uncharacteristic track included to set the stage for the show, and to appeal to a broader audience. After that, however, there are some extraordinarily haunting pieces of music, such as The Time of the Turning, a duet between Fraser and Richie Havens that doesn’t half sound like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush from a million years earlier. Exactly the same happens on Downside Up, with the male part this time being taken by Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile.

I’ve never worked out why this album wasn’t widely appreciated by the music press. Perhaps nobody could find it in them to be positive about anything associated with the Millennium Dome show, which is a shame. There’s a good article on the PeterGabriel.com website about the music and the show, which was written at the event’s launch.

• Albums of the Decade: No.5
• Albums of the Decade: No.6
• Albums of the Decade: No.7
• Albums of the Decade: No.8
• Albums of the Decade: No.9
• Albums of the Decade: No.10
• Albums of the Decade: No.11
• Albums of the Decade: No.12
• Albums of the Decade: No.13
• Albums of the Decade: No.14
• Albums of the Decade: No.15
• Albums of the Decade: No.16
• Albums of the Decade: No.17
• Albums of the Decade: No.18
• Albums of the Decade: No.19
• Albums of the Decade: No.20

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