Scratch My Back / And Ill Scratch Yours

This edition features two albums. The *Scratch My Back* portion is a collection of Peter Gabriel performing 12 covers: six from established veterans (such as David Bowie, Randy Newman, and Neil Young) and six from newer artists (Bon Iver, Regina Spektor, Arcade Fire, etc.). The companion piece, *And I’ll Scratch Yours*, features those artists covering Gabriel songs. For his album, Gabriel slows everything down to a muted trickle. Paul Simon’s “The Boy in the Bubble” has its buoyant bounce removed, leaving just piano and strings. David Bowie’s “Heroes” crawls, with its sense of glam replaced by an end-of-the-world solemnity. Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” comes close to the original recording, but that’s about it. Bon Iver’s “Flume,” The Magnetic Fields’ “The Book of Love,” and The Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is a Cage” sound more like modern classical pieces, with orchestral arrangements filling the soundstage. On the reverse, Paul Simon handles “Biko” with a world music fan’s sensitivity, and Lou Reed turns “Solsbury Hill” into a grizzled flaying. Randy Newman gives “Big Time” a touch of New Orleans, while Arcade Fire tease out new sounds from “Games Without Frontiers” and Bon Iver touch gently on “Come Talk to Me.”

Both sides of Peter’s song-swap project now available in one place, as was originally conceived. 'Scratch My Back' was originally released in 2010 and now makes a second coming, this time accompanied by 'And I’ll Scratch Yours', the concluding part of a series of song exchanges in which Peter and other leading artists reinterpret each other’s songs. Peter is delighted with how many artists signed up for the project and bearing in mind the calibre and careers of those artists whose songs he selected, it’s rather incredible that all but two songwriters were able to reciprocate.