Just finished the album, and it's miles better than
Scratch My Back was. That album was so subdued that it barely had a pulse; this one has some life to it. As for the album itself, it's fine, I guess. The orchestral arrangements mostly do the songs justice (although the strings playing David Rhodes' guitar riff on "In Your Eyes" sounded ridiculous to me for some reason, sort of like a high school band covering pop songs), and Peter's singing as well as ever. Was not a fan of his duet partner on "Don't Give Up", and his daughter Melanie, who does most of the female backing vocals, is not even in the same ballpark vocally as others who have held that role (Sinead O'Connor, Kate Bush, Paula Cole).
The biggest strength is obviously the songs, which were a good selection, especially because the choices were not all obvious ones.
Melt and
Scratch are both represented, and neither is known for its individual songs. Thing is, the songs were already good, and while the orchestra doesn't do a disservice to them, it doesn't really enhance them much, either (although "San Jacinto" and "Red Rain" are both particularly strong), since the originals were so rich in their arrangements and instrumentation, which is always going to be more interesting to me than a standard orchestra. As such, the album is enjoyable, but wholly unnecessary.
3/5 stars
I was reading up on this on wikipedia and noticed another album in Peter's chronology after this one, which I'd all but forgotten about, mostly because it was announced not long after
UP. Bring on
I/O (Input/Output) soon, please. New material is needed, and this one's been sitting on the shelf for seven years now.