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Up (2002) is the seventh studio and 13th album overall released by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It is his most recent full-length studio album of new original material to date, as the subsequent albums Scratch My Back and New Blood feature covers of other artists' songs, and orchestral renderings of Gabriel's older material, respectively.

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Up
Studio album by Peter Gabriel
Released	23 September 2002
Recorded	April 1995 – October 1998 (Principal recording), Early 2000 – April 2002 (Additional recording)
Studio	Real World (Box, England) (Principal recording) The Meduse (Senegal), Real World Mobile (France) (Additional recording)
Genre	Art rock[1] progressive rock[2] electronic[3] ambient[3]
Length	66:40
Label	Geffen (US & Canada), Real World
Producer	Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel chronology
Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) Up (2002) Hit (2003)
Singles from Up
"The Barry Williams Show" Released: 16 September 2002 "More than This" Released: 30 December 2002 "Growing Up" Released: 30 June 2003 "Darkness" Released: 2 August 2004 (Switzerland only)

Background

Gabriel started work on the album in the spring of 1995. He and engineer Richard Chappell travelled between different locations during the initial writing stages of the album using a portable setup (recording at Real World Studios in between): the first two months were spent in a rented chalet in Méribel, then three months in Senegal starting in October 1995, followed by another trip to Méribel in Spring 1996 and a brief recording stint on a friend's recording-studio-equipped boat along the Amazon in Summer 1997.[4] From then on, the rest of the album work was based at Real World Studios, where further writing, recording, overdubbing, editing and mixing took place over the next four to five years.[4] At one point, work was being done simultaneously on both Up and the OVO soundtrack for a few months, separately by engineers Chappell and Richard Evans (respectively). However, in November 1998, both engineers decided to focus on completing the OVO soundtrack, so work on Up was temporarily put on hold.[5]

By late 2000, work on the album was finally gathering renewed pace, with a string section recorded at AIR Lynhurst Studios in London amongst other things. Renowned mixer Tchad Blake was invited to Real World Studios in early 2001 to begin the final mixing stage.[6] He would work on the mixes in the Big Room in Real World Studios, while Gabriel and Chappell continued recording in the Writing Room. Between them they'd figure out which of the newly recorded parts would be used in the mix or not.[4]

Its name was Up from the start, though at one point the name I/O was considered. In 1998/99, Peter learned that R.E.M. also intended to release an album bearing the same title, but decided to keep it after consulting with the band and much consideration: "I have been living in an 'Up' world for four years now and have no wish to come down."[7] In the months preceding the album's release, video clips of Gabriel talking about the songs as well as short demos of each song were released at the coming of every full moon on Gabriel's official website.

Songs

The album's lyrics deal mostly with birth and especially death. The opening track, "Darkness", is a song about overcoming fears. "Growing Up" is a summation of life put to a pulsating beat. "Sky Blue" is a track Gabriel claimed to have been working on for 10 years before finishing it. The track "No Way Out" is the first track to deal with death solely, though death is a common theme across the entire album. "I Grieve" was conceived after Gabriel looked over his catalogue of music as if it were a catalogue of emotional tools. He found one major missing tool to be one to cope with death and therefore "I Grieve" was born. Gabriel performed the song live on the television show Larry King Weekend on the first anniversary of September 11 attacks in the US, during which Gabriel said that his two daughters were living in New York City and he could not contact them for some time, and that this song was for people who did not hear anything from their relatives then.[8] It was not, however, written specifically for 9/11, having appeared in an earlier version on the City of Angels soundtrack in 1998.

The first single from Up, "The Barry Williams Show" is a down-beat, jazzy song dealing with reality talk shows such as Jerry Springer (in fact, The Brady Bunch star Barry Williams appeared as an audience member in the Sean Penn-directed music video for the song with Requiem for a Dream actor Christopher McDonald playing the titular talk show host).

The song "Signal to Noise" features guest vocalist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who worked on the song in the studio before his death in 1997. Originally he performed the song in a "much starker" form, before Gabriel transformed it into a strings-oriented piece as the cornerstone of the album.[9] Finally, "The Drop" consists of only Gabriel and a Bösendorfer grand piano.

Formats and packaging

The album cover pictures five water drops in a diagonal line, over a blurred background of Gabriel's face. Each drop contains a refracted image of Gabriel's face.

The album is available in stereo on CD & vinyl while Surround Sound versions are encoded in Super Audio CD, and DTS DVD-A.

The album, in a similar fashion to the earlier Us, used specially commissioned artwork representing each song, which was reproduced in the CD, vinyl, DVD-A, and SACD packaging. In this case the medium chosen was photography. Pictures are by Arno Rafael Minkkinen for "Darkness", M. Richard Kirstel for "Growing Up", Shomei Tomatsu for "Sky Blue" and "I Grieve", Mari Mahr for "No Way Out", Paul Thorel for "The Barry Williams Show", Granular-Synthesis (Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich) for "My Head Sounds Like That", Susan Derges for "More Than This", Michal Rovner for "Signal to Noise", Adam Fuss for "The Drop."

Protected CD copies, released in US only, include "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" (this song was later released on a second disc of compilation album Hit in 2003 and on Big Blue Ball album in 2008). Also, on these copies "No Way Out" has a different name – "Don't Leave".

Critical reception

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Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
Entertainment.ie	[12]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[13]
The Guardian	[14]
Kludge	7/10[15]
Pitchfork	7.2/10[16]
Rolling Stone	[17]

Up received generally favourable reviews from critics noted at review aggregator Metacritic. It has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 16 reviews.[10]

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

Technical personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Weekly chart performance for Up by Peter Gabriel

Chart (2002)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[18]	37
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[19]	9
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[20]	21
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[21]	4
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[22]	2
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[23]	16
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[24]	18
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[25]	11
French Albums (SNEP)[26]	4
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27]	4
Italian Albums (FIMI)[28]	1
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[29]	35
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[30]	11
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[31]	4
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[32]	6
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[33]	4
UK Albums (OCC)[34]	11
US Billboard 200[35]	9
US Top Internet Albums[citation needed]	9

Year-end charts

Year-end chart performance for Up by Peter Gabriel

Chart (2002)	Position
Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[36]	101
Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[37]	31

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[38]	Gold	50,000^
Germany (BVMI)[39]	Gold	150,000^
Japan	—	60,000[40]
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[41]	Gold	20,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[42]	Silver	60,000^
United States	—	338,000[43]
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

External links

• Up at MusicBrainz
• Up at MusicBrainz
• Richard Chapelle on recording Up at Sound on Sound
• Up at Metacritic

На других языках

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- [en] Up (Peter Gabriel album)

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[it] Up (Peter Gabriel)

Up è complessivamente il tredicesimo album della carriera solista del musicista britannico Peter Gabriel.

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[ru] Up (альбом Питера Гэбриела)

Up — седьмой студийный альбом британского рок-музыканта Питера Гэбриела, был выпущен в 2002 году. Гэбриел начал работу над пластинкой весной 1995 года. Он выбрал название Up с самого начала, хотя какое-то время рассматривал вариант — I/O. В 1998 году музыкант рассказал прессе, что альбом близок к завершению, но диск увидел свет лишь в сентябре 2002 года. В преддверии выхода альбома на официальном сайте Гэбриела появились видеоклипы, в которых он рассказывал о каждой песне. Также, на сайт выкладывали короткие демоверсии треков, в канун очередного полнолуния.

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