Peter Gabriel - “i/o”
A few of my friends highlighted this album to me. It is indeed a good album, something that I would personally call “soft rock without the kitsch” rather than “art pop”, which I don’t think I can say out loud without cringing. Too self-congratulatory! Genre aside, it’s a solid music album. Good compositions, fantastic vocals. It was also an interesting exercise to “choose” which mix of every song I prefer.
I expected I’d rather be choosing the dark-side mixes due to my general music taste. Somewhat surprisingly, I mostly preferred the bright-side mixes. Spike understood the assignment better, I think. Tchad Blake tried to dirty up the mixes but often he didn’t go far enough to make them gritty enough to be distinct. Instead, oftentimes he would be introducing a random change that was somewhat distracting.
At the time I wrote this, I was unaware of the “in-side” mixes by Hans-Martin Buff, but as this is a Dolby Atmos mix, I doubt I would choose those versions for any track. Atmos down-mixes to stereo in a way I don’t really like. Human-produced stereo mixes always win in my view. I did compare the “in-side” mix (listening in stereo) of “The Court” with the other mixes and it sounded the worst, almost like a DOS-era SoundBlaster MIDI accompaniment to Peter’s vocals that were too quiet in this mix, too.
Panopticom
I prefer the dark version. The high-pitched delay synths from the bright mix could stay but everything else gels much better. Sounds like an industrial track at times.
The Court
The clarity of the bright mix is undeniable. The drums, the piano, the strings, they sing in a clear way that the dark mix somewhat overdoes. In particular, the dark mix turns up backing vocals in the finale in a way that sounds unintentionally dissonant by the singers. But the thing I dislike the most is that it includes an evil laugh at the start of the track, which crosses the pastiche line for me. I do like the court hammer at 1:33, that is subtle enough to be fun. This is sadly missing in the bright mix.
The bright mix also flows better. The consecutive parts sound like a whole, like sections of the same track. In the dark mix there’s less consistency between the parts.
Here, too, though, there’s an element of the worse mix I like better. The chorus in the dark mix has this bass harmonization that is just delicious. In general, the dark mix does bass better on the entire album.
In this particular case though it manages to hide what seems to be a false note by the bass player. The bright mix doesn’t do that, which makes the note very obvious because there are no other bass elements ringing out at the time.
This is the song where I’d like to be able edit my own mix the most. It’s probably my favorite track on the record. Synths and percussion contributed by Brian Eno here, what’s not to like?
Playing For Time
Here, too, the bright mix provides more naturally sounding backing instruments, which works better because it’s a delicate orchestral arrangement. The dialed back staccato strings of the finale in the dark mix would be less heavy-handed, though.
I/O
Here I find myself liking the bright mix more as well. The dark mix is more bass heavy with an over-compressed piano typical to those mixes. But the thing I can’t stand about the dark mix is that the vocal’s got this bathroom reverb on that just makes the song sound like a demo. It ruins the song. That’s too bad because the electronic effects of the dark mix are tastefully distorted and moved back in the mix, whereas the bright mix uses them in their naked form, which sounds a bit tacky.
The working title here was “In and Out” and I find that would work better in the context of the album. The chorus sounds like an early 1990s MTV chart topper.
Four Kind of Horses
Brian Eno is really prominent on this track. The nod to buddhism is noted and appreciated. Musically, the autechre-like detuned harp sequence is delightful. Is Brian also on backing vocals?
The dark mix would be ideal if it weren’t for the rather distracting replacement for the clap sample at 2:02. In the dark version there is an annoying double cymbal like if somebody’s hitting a plate with cutlery. It’s disorienting, it takes me effort not to focus on it.
This is ironic given that Tchad recognized correctly there that the finger flick is out of place in the bright mix at the beginning and replaced it with a combo of shaker and a tambourine. Very effective. So he is capable of good calls, he just overdid it with the restaurant cutlery noises. The light distortion in the dark mix is however very pleasant and glues the track well, and works also due to the terrorism-themed lyrics. So in the end I’m going with that one.
Road To Joy
It’s a Nine Inch Nails track in disguise. The dark mix makes it a bit more obvious with a few extra sound elements that fit this aesthetic. I’m seriously wanting a proper NIN mix of this with distortion and the lead being more over the top. This is why, surprisingly, I prefer the bright mix because it’s different enough that it doesn’t bother me it’s not a bona fide NIN arrangement.
So Much
Both mixes are pretty similar, I chose the dark one because it’s louder without overdoing it, and the finale builds more gracefully.
Olive Tree
Hard to pick. I like the clarity of the bright mix, the instrumentation sounds more natural. On the other hand, the dark mix distorts the guitars just enough that this becomes an alt rock track, and a good one at that!
Ultimately I’m going with the bright mix because the vocals during the chorus sound clearer, the brass sits better in the mix. During the verse, the chorus on the low register guitar at 0:15 really reminds me of some Polish rock from the mid ‘80s.
Love Can Heal
This walks a fine line between a ballad and kitsch but skillfully never crosses it. Its message isn’t as saccharine as the title suggests, and musically it’s in the greatest mid ‘80s - early ‘90s power ballad vibe. Very well done.
Hard to choose which mix I like better. Similar mixes but the dark one drops a delicious cello at the opening of the song, putting more weight on the DX7/D50, which in the making the first appearance of vocals more abrupt. The finale is a bit less focused in the bright mix but it makes up for it by accenting the high male backing vocal in the climax, which works very well.
This Is Home
The main riff in the bright mix is sublime. The dark mix provides a more naked version of it, which doesn’t work as well.
The bright mix hides the sparkling FM bells behind a ton of reverb and focuses more on the e-piano. The result is more subtle. The vocals have way less reverb which sounds more natural.
Here the dark mix turns backing vocals too loud, similar to its treatment of “The Court”. It’s distracting and unnecessary.
And Still
A song for Peter’s mother. I like the dark-side mix better. It makes the drums sound less synthetic, which I think works better for this track with piano, violin, and a cello. The bass is more pronounced as well, which fits the track very well. There’s a vocoder backing vocal across the track and the bright-side mix exposes it loudly. The dark mix is more subdued there, which I think works great: it’s only really audible during vocal crescendo. It’s the opposite of “This is Home” where the backing vocals were overdone in the dark mix.
Live and Let Live
This is where Peter loses me. The lyrics are naive in this kind of way that might have fit 1960s music, but definitely not 2020s. This is so distracting to me that I can’t really pick a mix, since I’m mostly skipping this track anyway. So let’s default to the bright-side mix for the sake of completing the picks. Somehow the track is also shorter on this mix.