In a word, the new Peter Gabriel album is Haunting. 53 minutes of voice, piano and orchestra. It’s dark. And mysteriously sinister throughout the 12 cover tunes. The “Scratch My Back” project has Peter Gabriel performing completely stripped-down arrangements of tunes by other artists. These 12 artists will then cover Peter’s original compositions on the to-be-released album “I’ll Scratch Yours.” Clever. You need to be in the mood for sure. But if you are, you will captivated, drawn-in, almost afraid to pull away. Because you might miss something important. And that’s the key. Is this album something important? Time will tell.

Gabriel has a knack for changing the course of music every decade. His experimentation with drum sounds and world music in the early 80’s was underratedly influential. The production of the 1986 album “So” changed what was expected in terms of a perfectly mixed album. In 1992 he released “Us” which changed how loops were used and the production was a bit, dare I say it, grundgy. Gabriel was also the first person I saw sport a goatee in the 90’s. Perhaps his influence in the 2000’s were minimal, but certainly his pursuit of international artists have exposed more than 65 performers to the rest of world.

So here we are, 2010. How will this deeply intense record effect the next 10 years of music. There are no drums, percussion, guitars, bass guitar, synthesizers. Perhaps the I-cover-your-song/you-cover-mine will be the more influential element here?

Here is the track listing with the original artists

1. “Heroes” – David Bowie 4:10
2. “The Boy in the Bubble” – Paul Simon 4:28
3. “Mirrorball” – Elbow 4:48
4. “Flume” – Bon Iver 3:01
5. “Listening Wind” – Talking Heads 4:23
6. “The Power of the Heart” – Lou Reed 5:52
7. “My Body Is a Cage” – Arcade Fire 6:13
8. “The Book of Love” – The Magnetic Fields 3:53
9. “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” – Randy Newman 2:34
10. “Après moi” – Regina Spektor 5:13
11. “Philadelphia” – Neil Young 3:46
12. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” – Radiohead 5:06

Stephin Merritt’s (The Magnetic Fields’ frontman) has covered “Not One Of Us” and Paul Simon’s version of “Biko” is expected to be the second release on March 28. Both songs are from Gabriel’s 3rd self-titled album. Radiohead will be covering “Wallflower” from Gabriel’s 4th self-titled album.

I rate the album 4 out of 5 record sleeves.

There are two versions available. The Deluxe version w/ a 2nd disc of remixes:

And the standard single-disc version:

Pick one up, fer sure! Let me know if you do.