r/petergabriel

It's hard to put into words but I feel as if the o\i project has finally been justified.

Don't get me wrong, o\i has had its highlights so far - Been Undone has been a slow grower on me since it unsuspectingly dropped this January (though it seems like many here immediately gravitated towards it). Bucket is great and feels up to snuff with any of the i/o tracks - a sure sign that that song almost made that album, guaranteed, and just barely missed because the other 12 were just that important. And the others have been nice to have. But I Belong To The Sky just feels modern and exactly what a song in 2026 should sound like. That groove, man.

I like A Hard Lesson, but then when Gabriel started talking about it in terms of just "being a track that *almost* made a lot of albums", it deflated a little bit of my own personal excitement about a very good song. When an artist talks down about their own craft, the feeling becomes contagious, no matter how good the product really is sometimes. In my opinion we'd just come off of two whiffs and then followed it up with a song that Peter was talking about almost as an afterthought.

Then we get this. And it makes all the difference in the world.

It sounds, and feels, like a bright sunny day with only a smattering of small little clouds in it. It also feels like a culmination and a mission statement of everything Peter has learned at Real World Records. The rhythm is layered and light and bouncy. The instruments soar with airiness. The optimism is downright groovy, and I've not felt that way in a good long while. Maybe not since Olive Tree or Road to Joy really has music directly improved my mood. Listening to Road To Joy feels like a great party from a few years ago that you can still crank at any moment. Olive Tree feels like a jeep drive through a friendly and oft-toured, off-road safari, splashing through puddles as you say hello to the predators and prey. But I Belong To The Sky feels like a nice, much needed, stretch.

I hope Dark-Side doesn't trade in the catchy, windy beats for something too dramatic or theatrical. The point of the song, seems to me, to be the whimsicality of the music, the freeness of the feel, the breathing of the beats, the breeziness of the performance. Loose, full of fun sounds, light on your feet. If the rest of Side B is on this level and this mood, I'll be happy as a bird.

The new song typically appears at midnight in New Zealand’s Chatham Islands time zone. That was over 45 minutes ago. It’s now past midnight in New Zealand and still nothing.

Is there anyone living in New Zealand who could confirm that they’re also not seeing anything? I’m wondering if they figured out how to prevent us from VPNing in and listening via YouTube. The paranoia is strong this morning haha… but all the other tracks have been quite consistent.

Hoping it shows up soon…

I've been meaning to record a video to share my progress in recreating/reconstructing Lead a Normal Life from PG3/Melt for some time and tonight I'm feeling anxious to hear the new song, so decided to kill some time by finally doing a screen recording and adding some annotations to explain it.

Still very much a work in progress. No work done on the ending, need to record guitar, and need to try and recreate Peter's vocals (what you hear in the video is Peter's actual voice extracted from the album track). Having a lot of fun trying to recreate the song and capture the vibe of the original.

Maybe Big Pete lost track of the days watching the World Cup 👀

Can we please talk about how utterly epic White Shadow is?

This was today's treat from the algorithm, but I need no reminding how much I love this song.

I was originally captivated by the bass, and then completely consumed by the melody and the mysterious, haunting lyrics. And, perhaps contrary to even the great man himself, I actually love the production. Huge fan of Scratch right here!

I prefer Fripp's solo on the studio version, but the "swirling" sounds - as one commenter called them - on this version are hallucinogenic!

This song is pretty much responsible for my Gabriel obsession, and I know it's a bit of an unusual pick, but at this point in time I can safely say it is my favourite of all songs that exist.

Any other White Shadow fans out there? What do you love about it? What do you make of the attached live version?

Just in case anyone was planning to VPN into New Zealand on Sunday, I wanted to post this and let everyone know that the Strawberry Moon is on Tuesday in the UK, so Monday morning will be the earliest most of us can hear it.

Sorry ... all I have is a Spotify link.