Gabriel’s growth eludes critic

Robert Hilburn’s review of Peter Gabriel’s live performance (“Gabriel Has Zeal but ‘Up’ Lacks Appeal,” Dec. 12) seemed less a review of the show than an opportunity to pillory the album “Up” and, in the process, demonstrate a facile understanding of the music on that disc.

I attended the Gabriel show at the Staples Center last week and thoroughly enjoyed the performance and the music (much of which was from “Up”). The only thing I didn’t enjoy was how a good part of the audience spent so much time shuttling back and forth between their seats and the plethora of snack bars in the building. I had the impression that, for these people, the concert wasn’t an artistic event but rather like spending an evening watching TV, where their attention falls neatly into 12-minute act breaks punctuated by trips to the refrigerator.

What made me think of Hilburn and his comments about the “Up” material was how the transient members of the audience only seemed engaged when Gabriel and company performed selections from “So.” I’m aware that Hilburn’s career has spanned a great number of years and that he has some familiarity with Gabriel’s work. That makes his take on “Up” all the more surprising. His thesis seems to be that Gabriel should return to the more hook-oriented brand of music that permeated “So.”

That opinion demonstrates either a sad lack of understanding of Gabriel’s music and its evolution or simply stands as a statement of aesthetic shallowness on Hilburn’s part. Should the latter be true, then he’d likely be happier immersing himself in the later works of Paul McCartney and Sting ... or maybe even Britney Spears.

Jim Brooks

Van Nuys

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Reading Robert Hilburn’s review of Peter Gabriel’s concert at the Arrowhead Pond really had me wondering if we saw the same show. I saw an amazing performance that I won’t soon forget. He saw a concert bogged down by the “stiff, lifeless tone of much of Gabriel’s latest album.” I personally find Gabriel’s new album enthralling and very thought-provoking. Then again, I am not a middle-aged critic trying hard to maintain my credibility by raving about Eminem as if he were God’s gift to music. Hilburn may feel that Gabriel’s latest work is “a bit too obvious,” but I guess writing rant after vicious rant about one’s mother is “more inventive musically and more convincing thematically” than Gabriel’s latest work. If the critic would act his age, he may find much to relate to in Gabriel’s newest album.

Patrick McAfee

Anaheim