Why is Peter Gabriel’s So on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
You could have a bumper car, bumping. The amusement never ends.
Some stats & info about Peter Gabriel – So
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Album Rock, Contemporary Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #297
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Peter So released? 1986
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #631 out of 1,000
Peter Gabriel’s So on Spotify
So why is Peter Gabriel’s So on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
So… So is an album jam packed with monster hit songs. Monster hit songs.
The album was released in 1986, but let’s jump forward a few years in time to 1989 and talk about the movie Say Anything for a moment. Say Anything is an enormously important movie, especially for members of Generation X (full disclosure: I’m young Gen X, okay?). It’s also an ecstatically great film, a dramedy that hits on all the best levels of comedy and drama and contains great performances, great truths, and endlessly quotable lines.
And it also features “In Your Eyes,” from Peter Gabriel’s So. And not only does it feature “In Your Eyes,” it’s deployed at a crucial moment in the movie to underscore the tragic notion that Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) and Diane Court (Ione Skye) just might not end up with each other. Or will they*?
* Spoiler: ding!
Side note: after you watch Say Anything for about the 40th time, you start to ask questions like: does Diane Court live on the edge of a park with a dirt road running up to her house and with nice picnic benches strewn around for picnicking purposes and such? Or is Lloyd maybe only metaphorically playing music through Diane’s window by holding a boombox over his head? What the hell’s going on here?
Anyway, “In Your Eyes” is an incredibly beautiful and romantic song that helps elevate one of the best films of the 1980s, and of all time.
Now, let’s rewind back to 1986, when the 1980s were still the 1980s, baby!
We’re talking “Sledgehammer” and we’re talking “Big Time,” two (more) monster songs that dominated the airwaves and MTV. Both are big, fun, soulful songs with Gabriel really going for it on vocals and a panoply of ‘80s era synth-y production antics to help orient you to the fact that you’re smack in the middle of the go go Reagan years. If I had to pick a favorite here, I’ll go with the fast paced and extra synth-y “Big Time.”
And then, if that’s not enough for you, there was also the gentle ballad, “Don’t Give Up,” which features Kate Bush’s lovely vocals.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.