Best Peter Gabriel on CD - PG 1 - 4 and So...

Enlighten me.

 

Probably the 3rd. Hard to pick.

 

The Virgin/Charisma's are my choices for all of these, before the remasters came into the picture, IMHO. The Japan Black Triangle of So, is spectacular as well. I like all of those as albums equally.

 

Thanks. I should say also that I don't want to have to really hunt, so ideally I'd like to know what the best sounding US pressings are. I have a West Germany for US target of PG 4 and it's great.

Are the remasters bad?

 

You will want them all, I would suggest getting them chronologically. Fantastic stuff, way ahead of its time. Be prepared- the production values are quite different from disc to disc.

 

I think he wants to know which CD versions are best for the first five PG albums, not which PG albums to get...

 

I like the current remasters.

I haven't had any other CD version of the first three albums. The remasters for SECURITY, SO and US sound better than whatever I had before.

 

They're not bad. There's some compression and limiting and they do seem to be slightly bright but they're certainly not offensive, at least not to me. Others will surely have differing opinions.

I don't think any of his CDs issues have sounded bad.

 

Same guy who did the Genesis remasters did the Gabriel remasters: Tony Cousins. I love the Gabriel remasters (especially the SACD of II). I have my old ones still, but I prefer the new ones.

 

The SACDs of Peter Gabriel are really nice....

They could have easilly been a trainwreck.

 

On what label were the original US CDs of PG 1-3 released?

 

PG1 was Atco, PG2 was Atlantic.

PG3 as initially released in the US (on vinyl and cassette, at least) on Mercury, but I would imagine that the first US CD issue was on Geffen. Can anyone else either confirm or refute that there is no Mercury CD issue of PG3?

Related to all of this, is there a UK Charisma CD issue of PG4 on that really cool CD label that Charisma had while they were distributed by Phonogram? And if so, is it sonically identical to the Geffen target CD?

 

oops sorry, I thought you wondered what the best one was. duh.

 

I'm happy with my SACD's too, after listening to them I dont feel that im missing out by not having other versions..

I have UP, US, SO and the 1st two.

 

In the case of "Security," I prefer the remaster by a large margin. (I've not heard the SACD edition). In fact, the only disappointment for me in that remaster series was that "Plays Live" was edited down to one CD. Bad decision.

 

As a matter of fact, there is. I have one - catalog # is 800 091-2. There's also a WG Charisma CD of Plays Live - Highlights- 812 445-2.

I don't have a copy of the Geffen target, so won't be of any help there.

Were there any other WG Charisma Peter Gabriel CDs (or Genesis CDs for that matter)? There's A Trick Of The Tail and Duke for Genesis (I have both).

 

I think his best album is Peter Gabriel II. I have a Toshiba EMI Japan cd and the remaster. I haven't done an AB yet. Is the SACD worth getting? I remember reading here somewhere that there is hardly a difference between the SACD and the remaster.

 

The first 3("Car", "Scratch" and "Melt" albums were on ATCO on CD in the U.S. The Geffen target of IV(Security) is the same CD as the Charisma West German CD. I've only had the blue-labeled version of this one.

 

Well, I know for certain that "Melt" never was released on Atlantic/Atco, due to a funny story that Ahmet Ertegun tells about how John Kalodner told him to drop Peter Gabriel after he (Kalodner) listened to "Melt" and was turned off by how much of a turn that Gabriel's sound had taken. Ertegun, in hindsight, always regretted that decision, especially considering that PG went on to release So. And who had a hand in signing PG to Geffen? Kalodner, of course (so the story goes).

Thanks for the info about PG4/Security, though.

 

I have the early Phonogram disc made in West Germany (800 091-2) and the later Made in Holland discs (PGCD4). They are not the same. Btw: I tought this was a digital recording?

First the (800 091-2):
Track 1 Peak level 95.5 %
Track 2 Peak level 80.5 %
Track 3 Peak level 100.0 %
Track 4 Peak level 100.0 %
Track 5 Peak level 100.0 %
Track 6 Peak level 100.0 %
Track 7 Peak level 94.2 %
Track 8 Peak level 99.9 %

This is the (PGCD4):
Track 1 Peak level 97.7 %
Track 2 Peak level 53.8 %
Track 3 Peak level 71.0 %
Track 4 Peak level 67.9 %
Track 5 Peak level 90.7 %
Track 6 Peak level 85.6 %
Track 7 Peak level 60.8 %
Track 8 Peak level 91.3 %

 

I'm pretty sure Security and Plays Live are it for Gabriel. For Genesis, there's also ATTWT, available either in the yellow-moire version or the (incredibly rare, afaik) purple flame design.

Geoff

 

Another vote for the Remaster of PG4 (Security) here.

The WG Target (1st version released in the US) is ok (and still easily found cheap) but the Remaster has a little more oomph and I can't detect any of the complained about compression. Maybe I need to listen again?

The RL cut on Geffen vinyl is still my favorite, though. Beats the Townhouse pressing (also on Geffen) by a mile. Didn't realize this until I stumbled on an RL copy recently.

 

I like the remasters for PG 1-3 and So

but

it's been widely reported that the PG4 remaster is faulty. The big crescendo at the end of Lay Your Hands On Me is gone. (btw the rest of it sounds fine to me, but there you go)
I like the WG Charisma one that says copyright 1978 instead of 1982.

Also, the Us (the album Us) remaster sounds too different to me from the original. There's a shift in the bass where the really deep oomph it had is now higher in up the freq spectrum. I guess that that deep bass originally was considered a bit of a strain for woofers, so maybe that's why it was altered?

 

SACDs all the way. Much more natural sounding than remasters.

 

I always thought that one was a littled over-oomphed.