SO. (Peter Gabriel)

A bassline propels the music forward, horns respond and Peter Gabriel sounds as if he wants to express every word with his whole body. Sledgehammer is one of those singles that can almost obscure an album. Anyone who hears the song might immediately see the moving clay and fruit from the music video. But play So from the beginning and a larger story unfolds. Behind the exuberance lie unrest, comfort, longing and a strikingly vulnerable voice.

The album was released on May 19, 1986. Gabriel had made a record that could reach millions of people, with songs that come in immediately. At the same time, the strange timbres, idiosyncratic rhythms and unexpected guests remained. So shows how much can fit into an accessible melody when the creator remains curious about what might be moving underneath.

A SHED FULL OF POSSIBILITIES.

The intensive work began in February 1985. The most important address was Ashcombe House, Gabriel's home near Bath, where a former cow shed had been converted into a studio. Here he worked with producer Daniel Lanois. They had already known each other's way of thinking from the soundtrack to Birdy, on which atmosphere and instrumental texture were given plenty of space. Now Gabriel was looking more explicitly for songs, for the directness of the soul music he had grown up with.

That choice did not make the process any faster. For about a year, ideas were built up and revisited. Rhythms and chords often formed the beginning; the final words still had to follow. Having his own workspace provided freedom. Gabriel could return to a recording without having to constantly justify the cost of an expensive external studio. A pop song could take its time coming to life here.

Sound engineer Kevin Killen joined the project after David Bascombe. In his memories of the sessions, he describes how malleable the music was initially. The early recording of Sledgehammer lasted almost ten minutes. By editing, re-recording sections and sharpening the tension, the groove took on its recognizable form. What rolls so effortlessly out of the speakers was carefully constructed.

THE BAND HAD TO KEEP BREATHING.

Lanois and Gabriel made full use of studio possibilities, but a good performance continued to set the direction. Gabriel later said that it was precisely Lanois who was particularly sensitive to the moment when musicians truly found each other. Red Rain was an example of that for him. In that opener, the drums and the recurring movement of the music feel like an environment in which the vocals have to climb upwards.

The arrangement creates a restless feeling without losing its coherence. The voice is grainy and emphatically present. Gabriel can deliver a line softly and then let it grow into a cry. This keeps the human effort audible, even when everything around it is carefully placed. The album sounds spacious, but the singer disappears nowhere in that space.

The sound itself also sometimes emerged from playing together. Killen described how Gabriel, Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes recorded different instruments as one combined part. You then hear a color whose origin is not immediately clear. That explains something of the appeal of So: under a clear melody can lie a sound that is difficult to place.

SOUL IN FULL MOTION.

On Sledgehammer, Gabriel's love for American soul takes a particularly direct form. He himself pointed to Otis Redding as an important source of inspiration. The horns connect the recording to that tradition, while the interplay between bassist Tony Levin and drummer Manu Katché makes the music spring. The rhythmic accents make it tempting to keep waiting for the same details: an entry, a response, a small shift behind the vocals.

The music video made that energy visible. Director Stephen R. Johnson worked with animators including Nick Park and the Brothers Quay. The image changes constantly, while Gabriel's face remains a recognizable focal point. The video won nine awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. Even apart from television, the song had already found its way: in July 1986 it was at the top of the American singles chart.

Further on, Big Time gives that exuberance a different charge. The music steps forward broadly and the narrator wants to become bigger and bigger. It suits the exaggerated gestures in the vocals. The humor lies in the relationship between an imposing sound and someone who is constantly trying to blow themselves up. This way, the same record can make you laugh with success and examine the need for it from within.

TWO VOICES, A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.

After Sledgehammer, Don't Give Up changes the temperature. Gabriel sings with Kate Bush about someone who is losing their footing. The inspiration came, among other things, from a photograph by Dorothea Lange from the American Depression era. The British unemployment of the 1980s also gave the subject a contemporary relevance. Behind the words lies a concrete question: what remains of self-worth when work and security disappear?

Bush gives the song its answer in a different tone. Her voice sounds calm and close, contrasting with the tension in Gabriel's. The duet therefore takes the form of a conversation in which one person can hardly go any further and the other remains standing. The repetition provides space to feel that relationship. A quick solution would actually make the story smaller.

On In Your Eyes, a guest voice opens up the perspective again. Youssou N'Dour enters with a clarity that seems to rise above the arrangement. The song moves from a personal search to a broader, collectively carried outburst. Gabriel described the collaboration as an important beginning; later the two would make music together more often. Here their meeting finds a place within a love song that seems to let in more and more people.

WHERE THE RECORD BECOMES SOFTER.

Mercy Street calls for a different way of listening. Gabriel was inspired by the work of American poet Anne Sexton and dedicated the song to her. The music remains low and enveloping. Percussion, breath and soft sounds keep the song in motion, while the vocals seem to have little distance from the listener.

Especially after the open character of In Your Eyes, that intimacy feels strong. The record does not just alternate tempo or volume; it changes the space in which a voice is located. That Voice Again sets a different tension against that on the first side, with an insistent rhythm and a vocal line that repeatedly returns to a restless center. Between the well-known singles lie passages that connect and deepen the listening experience.

On the original LP, the story ends with We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37). The repetition and sparse lyrics deliver a much bleaker ending than you might expect from such a successful pop record. The music leaves something unresolved. In doing so, So keeps space for discomfort until the end.

A FACE ON THE COVER.

The same movement toward directness can be seen in the artwork. Peter Saville said that the assignment initially revolved around the title Good. An earlier design was deemed insufficient, after which the approach changed. Photographer Trevor Key took the portrait that eventually appeared on the cover; Brett Wickens worked on the recognizable lettering of So.

Gabriel's face fills the image, without an elaborate setting. The grain and the gaze give the portrait tension. The small blue title shape holds the design together. The packaging therefore suits the music: a recognizable person comes forward, while the design retains enough of its own character not to become an ordinary press photo.

The record entered the United Kingdom at number one and remained at the top for two weeks. That result makes its significance measurable, but does not fully explain why the songs kept returning. In Your Eyes, for example, received a new life in 1989 through Say Anything, the film in which John Cusack's character holds a radio over his head. An existing song became part of a new image and thus reached listeners again.

BACK TO THE WHOLE ALBUM.

During the Back to Front tour, Gabriel brought So fully back to the stage, with musicians from his live band at the time. The photo above this story was taken during that tour in Frankfurt, in 2014. It shows a later Gabriel who is once again in the middle of these songs. The album had by then become history, but remained material to work with.

For this story, we follow the eight tracks of the original British LP. There, In Your Eyes opens side B. The collaboration with Laurie Anderson, This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds), belongs to other editions of the album. That distinction is useful when you place a reissue next to an early pressing: the order also determines how the mood develops.