Nightjacket Singer Loves Peter and Us

Andrea Wasse: This is a tough one, as I have two all time favourite albums: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love and Peter Gabriel’s Us. Both feel like home to me, like mother and father records, and they’ve inspired me in different ways. But since I’m being ever-so-gently forced into choosing just one, and the question comes during Fathers Day season, I’m going to go with Peter Gabriel. So … here we go.

My father was a big fan, and through either osmosis or genetics, I became one too. A lot of PG fans would tell you that THE ultimate Peter Gabriel album is So, as it’s packed with the big hits (“In Your Eyes,” “Sledgehammer,” etc.) but the songs on Us feel far more introspective to me, which is something I’m always drawn to as both a listener and songwriter. I crave soul baring, and that’s what I get when I listen to this.

(Real World)

Songs like “Come Talk To Me,” “Love To Be Loved,” “Secret World,” “Blood Of Eden … oof. They get to me on such a deep level, right to the core. Listening to this record makes me feel like I’m in the middle of a really great therapy session, where everything’s coming to the surface and starting to make sense. Basically, it’s therapy you can dance to.

My go-to song on the album will always be “Blood Of Eden.” It’s my idea of a perfect song. With poetic, biblical lyrics, haunting production, harmonies with Sinead O’Connor, it soothes my soul in the most wonderful way, which is a gift in these somewhat turbulent times.

It’s neat having a record that you’ve listened to for so many years And that as you, yourself, grow and experience more life, you start to have a new relationship with the lyrics with better understanding of where the artist was when they wrote them, finding more familiarity with them.