{"id":39743,"date":"2006-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/up\/"},"modified":"2006-05-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-02T00:00:00","slug":"up","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/up\/","title":{"rendered":"Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

There are records that grab your attention
\nimmediately and never let go. These are the works that just speak
\nto the soul from the very first note. Then there are records that
\ngiven a listen or two evoke nothing — at first. Occasionally,
\nthough, those records will get a second chance, and sometimes you
\nrealize putting it aside the first time was a mistake. Case in
\npoint — Up<\/i>.<\/p>\n

It was my uncle who told me to give Up<\/i> a
\nchance about two years ago. The man is a big Peter Gabriel fan, so
\nI gave it a shot, but my first impressions were of confusion. There
\nseemed to be something there, but I didn’t know what, and the disc
\nlay dormant until recently.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s the two years that broke up my listening
\nto Up<\/i>, but this time I “got” it. This is a dark, textured,
\nsubtle work that doesn’t necessarily emote, but sets a mood that
\npermeates from every note. Gabriel’s haunting lyrics and vocals
\nunify his vision and keeps the album focused. It does take a while
\nto grow on you, meaning there’s a good chance a lot of people will
\nnever “get” it.<\/p>\n

Stylistically, Up<\/i> never fails to impress,
\npulling sounds from all sorts of genres and mixing them together in
\na brilliant fashion. “Darkness” opens with a few rippling sound
\neffect, before twisting into a heavy, pulsating, and messy
\ndrumbeat. Almost immediately, the track shifts gears, presenting
\nGabriel’s whispering and piano work. Techno\/dance music gets
\nfeatured prominently on “Growing Up,” with the beat anchoring the
\nsong while Gabriel piles on electronic flourishes, orchestral
\narrangements, etc.<\/p>\n

The ethereal “Strawberry Fields Forever”-like opening
\nto “Sky Blue” is a picture of understated beauty, sparse guitar
\nchords littering the landscape, before eventually segueing into a
\nfull-fledged gospel chorus ending. ” I Grieve” takes on shadows of
\nAfrican tribal music, simmering beneath Garbriel’s haunting, coarse
\nvocals. “The Barry Williams Show,” a blistering satire on the Jerry
\nSpringer TV culture, taps into a heavy R&B beat reminiscent of
\n“Sledgehammer.”<\/p>\n

The U2-like “More Than This” probably displays the
\nmost accessible music on the record, but it’s more sophisticated
\nthan anything one would hear on pop radio. The Middle Eastern vibe
\nof “Signal To Noise” is just as effective as “Kashmir,” slowly
\nbuilding to a climatic, explosion of sound. To close things out,
\nGabriel does a 180, foisting up the listener a gentle, sparse
\n“ballad” clocking in at only 3 minutes, by far the shortest song on
\nUp<\/i>. One of the best Wilco songs never recorded by the group,
\n“The Drop” sums up the general mood of the album, an album of
\ndespair and hopelessness by Gabriel’s delivery of “One by one
\nthey’re going out \/ You watch them dim \/ One by one, you watch them
\nfall and wonder where they’re falling to.”<\/p>\n

Up<\/i> literally blindsided me, coming out of
\nnowhere and hitting me hard. This is certainly not a light and
\nbreezy album one would listen to on a sunny day. If you can make it
\npast the first few spins, there is a wealth of treasure waiting to
\nbe found.<\/p>\n

<\/review><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":28313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5924],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39743","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-peter-gabriel","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39743"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39743"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}