Peter Gabriel: 'The Book Of Love'

Gabriel has always striven to be a pioneering musical innovator, from his early days with Genesis right through to his championing of world music and his curatorship of the WOMAD festival. So it must rankle with him that he is still best known for the brashly banal '80s stadium rock hit, 'Sledgehammer'.

For his latest project, he has devised a series of song exchange albums where a diverse group of leading artists - including Radiohead, Neil Young and Arcade Fire - interpret each other’s material. 'The Book Of Love' has been lifted from Gabriel’s upcoming 'Scratch My Back' album, which is to be the first in the series. A cover of The Magnetic Fields song, it finds Gabriel in a surprisingly tender, heartfelt mood.

Eschewing bombast - and conventional rock instrumentation - has allowed Gabriel to deliver a delicate, subtle and beautifully orchestrated record that is all the better for the cracked, vulnerable, impassioned vocal. On this evidence it seems Gabriel has been reinvigorated by the challenge he has set himself and it suggests that the full length album has the potential to be one of the surprises of this year.



Released on 15th February 2010 by Virgin Records.

Written by Sam Monk.