New Blood (Peter Gabriel album)

Background

The album is a continuation of the project Gabriel began with his previous album, Scratch My Back, which was orchestral covers of other artists' songs. The idea for the album came about after work was done re-arranging Gabriel's songs for orchestra for the second half of shows during the Scratch My Back Tour of 2010. For this album Gabriel continues to work with arranger John Metcalfe. Gabriel originally planned on re-recording the songs with home-made instruments, however he did not find the range and tone of expression available in existing instruments. For this project he selected the songs which he felt would make the most interesting journey, instead of simply his hits. The album also has a new Gabriel song, "A Quiet Moment", which originated in his desire to separate "Solsbury Hill", remade only due to huge demand, from the rest of the album. Originally there was to have been three minutes of silence separating "Solsbury Hill", but as it was thought that this would confuse people, Gabriel decided that "A Quiet Moment" would work better.

Reception

In The Independent, Andy Gill gave the album three stars out of five and commented, "The prevailing tones are of awed wonder – the aspirant nobility of Downside Up, the dancing woodwind of San Jacinto and In Your Eyes – or expectant tension, most notably in the emotional storm-surges of Red Rain and The Rhythm of the Heat."

Writing for the Evening Standard, Pete Clark awarded the album four stars out of five and stated, "In typical Gabriel fashion obvious choices have been avoided: no Sledgehammer or Biko here. Instead, he and arranger/composer John Metcalfe have opted for songs that might best benefit from the grown-up treatment. Mostly, it is a great success."

In The Word, David Hepworth stated the album was more successful than Scratch My Back, writing "John Metcalfe's stern string arrangements frame the drama of songs like San Jacinto, In Your Eyes and Red Rain, though there is a tendency for any rhythmic strings to sound like Bernard Hermann soundtracks to Hitchcock movies. Good for an open-topped car ride across the Yorkshire Dales while you're playing hide and seek with the sun."