Few musical acts can claim the moniker of "artist" as much as Pete Gabriel can. The former Genesis frontman has long had a solo career of taking risks and churning out gems. He doesn't want to sell his music to the masses necessarily; he just wants to make quality work.
In 2023, he released an album called i/o, but the album was delivered song by song, each new tune being released in connection to a new full moon cycle. Gabriel is doing the same with his new project, o|i, and has now released four songs from the "record."
The latest of which was released this week and is called "Till Your Mind is Shining." As with the i/o tracks, the o|i tunes will have two different releases, a dark-side mix and a bright-side mix. The first version of the latest song is the dark-side mix.
Peter Gabriel releases his fourth track from new album o|i but how good is it?
Gabriel mentioned recently that the new song is as close as he will get to pop on the new work. Before he was part of prog-rock Genesis, he wrote songs that were more R&B-influenced and radio-friendly. While "Till Your Mind is Shining" is accessible to the listener, it is still not true pop. Gabriel might not be capable of making that, nor should he be.
The tune begins with a vocal cadence that recalls Alanis Morissette's "You Learn," but quickly changes sonically, and one might believe that Gabriel is about to re-tread "Digging in the Dirt." The vocals never hint at being so angry, though, after which the Morissette moment returns.
The tune certainly isn't bad, but it repeats itself too often, and at five minutes feels about two minutes too long, even with a somewhat strange breakdown a bit over halfway through.
Will the words get stuck in your head? Absolutely, especially when Gabriel sings, "ill-u-min-a-tion." But the listener is likely left wanting a bit more, something to augment the track emotionally. This has always been the trick to Peter Gabriel. While he masters chord progression and instrumentation, his tracks don't have any real soul. Ironically, "Till Your Mind is Shining" somewhat does.
The other songs released from o|i are all quite good, however, and, again, the new track isn't bad, either. The only frustrating part is that fans have to wait another month before hearing the fifth song.