Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel is the third solo studio album by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel, released on 30 May 1980 by Charisma Records. The album, produced by Steve Lillywhite, has been acclaimed as Gabriel's artistic breakthrough as a solo artist. AllMusic wrote that it established him as "one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians". Building on the experimental sound of his previous self-titled studio album, it saw Gabriel embracing post-punk and new wave with an art rock sensibility. Gabriel also explored more overtly political material with the anti-war song "Games Without Frontiers" (which became a No. 4 hit and remains his joint highest-charting single in the UK) and the anti-apartheid protest song "Biko", which remembered the murdered activist Steve Biko. The album is also often referred to as Melt, owing to its cover photograph by Hipgnosis. Some music streaming services currently refer to it as Peter Gabriel 3: Melt. Recording and production Writing-wise, Gabriel developed a "rhythm first" approach when writing and demoing songs for the album on an 8-track system. Synthesizer player Larry Fast introduced him to the pAiA "Programmable Drum Set", which offered full programmability, allowing Gabriel to program his own drum rhythms to build songs around during the writing process. He later bought a Roland CR-78 drum machine as well for use on the album: he felt the CR-78 sounded better but was less programmable than the pAiA drum machine.