With streaming music I have become somewhat of a musical sleepwalker.

I do love my daily dose of metal and punk, but the constant recommendation engines and instant availabilty of all slightly variables of the heavy chunk and desperate screaming, have made my discovery gene numb. What is worse, very little music sticks with me. Granted, I could have had this experience with plenty of recent albums, but this experience called me to medium to write my first post here.

First notes

It was almost with tears that I heard the first notes of Peter Gabriels “So” this morning. Perfectly crafted music from a time (1986) where (some) musicians had all the time in the world to shine on analog tape and further on to pressed vinyl.

In Your Eyes

With “In Your Eyes”, I had all of the best sounds of the eighties in my ears; the clearest voice recording, the crisp vocal arrangements (probably took ages to write and record) and the ornamenting melodies flowing around the beat. While you could easily dismiss the clunky guitar, the soft electric piano and the african voices as taggy, eigthies style, it works in the context of a great song.

Kate Bush

And you can’t go about this album without getting the goosebumps of “Don’t give up”. Again with the superbly recorded voice of both Peter Gabriel and the chilling beauty of Kate Bushs performance. She’s out of this world and perfectly matches this song.

With a more somber delivery of the message “Don’t worry, be happy”, anybody in a dark place will be moved by:

rest your head
you worry too much
it’s going to be alright
when times get rough
you can fall back on us
don’t give up
please don’t give up

Song goes from cool build-up to soulfilled finale, with Peter Gabriel showing his connection to both european music and american roots.

Allmighty sledge

A video so iconic, so groundbreaking that it would have survived the turn of times with a mediocre song.

Again the shear attention to detail in the production is worth several spins. Opening with a sampled Shakuhachi flute , it moves into a heavy dragging beat, perfect to lay the structure for the brilliant video. But the key element for this song is of course his voice. Controlled, crisp, coarse tones hitting the gated eighties reverb like, well, a hammer.

Listen to “So”

The “So” album is not available on Spotify, but because I gave Google Play a shot, I also uploaded my “old” iTunes library, giving me access to all the gold that streaming alone cannot provide.

I have to admit that I have been accustomed to semibad sound with in-ear plugs, but still the album had a different soundquality to it than 2014 tracks. I think I’ll have to dig up the vinyl somewhere.

The bad thing is that with children around the house, sleeping early, I don’t have the option of testing the album in high fidelity, but I’m sure it would add infinite dimensions to the experience.

The good thing is that the albums I left behind with the switch to streaming services, are still there. And they are probably still brilliant.

So what other albums are as legendary as this?