Long Walk Home

06/25/2002 10:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor

Once upon a time Peter Gabriel was a different person. He was strange. He was unusual. You didn't know where he was coming from, but you liked where he was going. Then over the years, either the world caught up or Peter slowed down. What seemed so odd suddenly felt familiar, almost normal. But Peter was still a weird person inside. He just didn't get out much anymore. It was as if he retired. He's still scheduled to release a new studio album sometime in the next year or so. But for now, his fans, his people, will have to settle for this, the soundtrack to a movie called Rabbit Proof Fence. Soundtracks are interesting places for musicians to hide. They usually don't have to sing; the ideas are someone else's. Gabriel, who has always followed the world beat, uses Aboriginal percussion and birdsongs to bring the barren Australian outback into sound. He sounds quite natural doing so. And even in a blindfold test, you'd probably guess it was his creation. That's both how distinctive and predictable he's become.