History Music / UpPeterGabrielAlbum

Coming out a whole decade after [[Music/{{Us}} his previous album]], owing to a highly protracted production that started all the way back in 1995, this release marks a shift back to the bleak, aggressive art rock style of ''Music/{{Melt}}'' while retaining the atmosphere and introspection of Gabriel's other releases. At the same time, ''Up'' foregoes most of its predecessors' WorldMusic elements in favor of an {{industrial}}-tinged direction, while also ramping up the ProgressiveRock-based structural elements characteristic of both Gabriel's early material and his material with Music/{{Genesis|Band}}. True to Gabriel's longtime affinity for taking advantage of evolving technology in music, ''Up'' was produced using then-new digital audio workstation software, allowing for a far greater amount of musical and artistic flexibility than what was previously possible with the drum machines and Fairlight CMI that dominated his '80s and '90s material.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the already-bleak ''Music/{{Us}}'', ''Up'' is even more dour, additionally returning to the aggressive style of ''Music/{{Melt}}'' from over two decades prior.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: Similarly to ''Music/{{Us}}'', the singles released for ''Up'' feature {{palette swap}}s of the album's CD label art for their own releases on the format; the sole exception is "Darkness", which was only released as a 12".

Upon release, ''Up'' was a commercial success, topping the Italian Albums chart and peaking at No. 11 in the UK and No. 9 on both the Billboard 200 and Billboard's Top Internet Albums chart. The album would later be certified gold in Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as silver in the UK. Conversely, it is currently also Gabriel's last album of original material-- while the intended sequel to ''Up'', ''i/o'', began production concurrently with this album in 1995, to this day it is still in production, owing to Gabriel's self-admitted AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder. Gabriel's actual next two albums, 2010's ''Scratch My Back'' and 2011's ''New Blood'', were respectively a CoverAlbum and a collection of orchestral re-recordings of his previous songs.

** ''Music/{{Car}}'', Gabriel's first album, featured a cover photo of a car in the rain, covered in water droplets. ''Up'', Gabriel's last completed album of original material to date, features five water droplets on the cover. Both albums additionally feature the involvement of Bob Ezrin, ''Car'' having been produced by him and ''Up'' featuring brass arrangements by him on "My Head Sounds Like That".

* DownerEnding: The already dark ''Up'' closes with "The Drop", a melancholic, minor-key LonelyPianoPiece that uses a story of watching skydivers falling without knowing where they'll land as a metaphor for uncertainty in a post-9/11 world.

Upon release, ''Up'' was a commercial success, topping the Italian Albums chart and peaking at No. 11 in the UK and No. 9 on both the Billboard 200 and Billboard's Top Internet Albums chart. The album would later be certified gold in Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as silver in the UK. Conversely, it is currently also Gabriel's last album of original material-- while the intended sequel to ''Up'', ''I/O'', began production concurrently with this album in 1995, to this day it is still in production, owing to Gabriel's self-admitted AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder. Gabriel's actual next two albums, 2010's ''Scratch My Back'' and 2011's ''New Blood'', were respectively a CoverAlbum and a collection of orchestral re-recordings of his previous songs.

* PsychoStrings: How "Signal to Noise" closes out.

* RegionalBonus: The initial Japanese release came with a bonus CD containing the Unadulterated Radio Edit of "The Barry Williams Show", the Royksopp Remix of "My Head Sounds Like That", and the radio edit of "Cloudless" from Gabriel's soundtrack to ''Film/RabbitProofFence''.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Music/{{Melt}}'' and ''Music/{{Security}}'' at the same time, combining both albums' styles and trading out the heavy Fairlight CMI usage for even more versatile digital audio workstations.

Coming out a whole decade after [[Music/{{Us}} his previous album]], owing to a highly protracted production that started all the way back in 1995, this release marks a shift back to the bleak, aggressive art rock style of ''Music/{{Melt}}'' while retaining the atmosphere and introspection of Gabriel's other releases. At the same time, ''Up'' foregoes most of its predecessors' WorldMusic elements in favor of an {{industrial}}-tinged direction, while also ramping up the ProgressiveRock-based structural elements characteristic of both Gabriel's early material and his material with Music/{{Genesis}}. True to Gabriel's longtime affinity for taking advantage of evolving technology in music, ''Up'' was produced using then-new digital audio workstation software, allowing for a far greater amount of musical and artistic flexibility than what was previously possible with the drum machines and Fairlight CMI that dominated his '80s and '90s material.

* FaceOnTheCover: A blurry Gabrel gazing at five falling waterdrops, each of which refract his face.

* LonelyPianoPiece: "The Drop", consisting of just Gabriel and a Bösendorfer grand piano.

** [[LongRunners Long-running]] American gospel group Music/TheBlindBoysOfAlabama provide guest vocals on "Sky Blue" and "More Than This"; they also did backing vocals on "Burn You Up, Burn You Down", which was included on promotional copies of the album but ultimately cut from the final release.

* BaldOfAwesome: By this point, Gabriel had gone near-completely bald as a result of his hair naturally receding and graying over the course of TheNineties; however, he chose to roll with the end result, growing a goatee and crafting a CoolOldGuy image for himself in the wake of his baldness and the fact that he was already 52 when ''Up'' finally released.