Line #6 Music/Passion


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51_passion.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Father, why have you forsaken me?"'']]
3	->''"I admire just about everything Peter Gabriel's ever done, from progressive to world music to pop. He's a great man with great ideas-- oh, and he's a great musician. This album features instrumentals from the score that he wrote for the Scorsese movie ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'', plus some additional bits and pieces. I feel very close to this music. I think in many ways Peter hears music the way that I hear it, so I'd have to say he's a kindred spirit."''
4	-->--[[Music/PinkFloyd Richard Wright]]
5
6	''Passion'', released in 1989 through Real World Records in the UK and Creator/GeffenRecords in the US, is the second soundtrack album by British art pop musician Music/PeterGabriel. His debut release on Real World, a vanity label created by Gabriel in the wake of Creator/CharismaRecords' absorption into Creator/VirginRecords, the album acts as the soundtrack to Creator/MartinScorsese's controversial film ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' from the year prior. Like the film, ''Passion'' was designed as an unconventional take on Christian music, avoiding the trappings of European classical music commonly associated with the story of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} in favor of trying to approximate the kind of music that would've been played in first-century Israel, during Jesus' own life. To do this, Gabriel sourced talent from the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and South Asia, via the resources offered by his organization WOMAD. This included not only returning guest vocalist Youssou N'Dour from ''Music/{{So}}'', but also Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Lakshminarayana Shankar, and Baaba Maal, who saw their first major international exposure as a result of their involvement with the album. The collaboration seemed to endear these artists to Gabriel, as Shankar would appear on Gabriel's [[Music/Us1992 following]] [[Music/UpPeterGabrielAlbum two]] studio albums, with Khan posthumously appearing on the latter as well. Later in the year, Gabriel would release the companion record ''Passion -- Sources'', a compilation of related pieces from the same sessions by the artists brought on board to assist Gabriel on this album.
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8	At the same time, however, the album does not represent the soundtrack as it was originally presented in the film. Rather, Gabriel chose to revisit it following the film's release, elaborating upon his work and developing previously unfinished ideas to create a markedly different product than what theatergoers had heard in 1988, similarly to Music/{{Queen\|Band}}'s ''Music/AKindOfMagic''[[note]]based on the ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' soundtrack[[/note]] before it and Music/DavidBowie's ''[[Music/HoursDavidBowieAlbum 'hours...']]''[[note]]based on the ''VideoGame/OmikronTheNomadSoul'' soundtrack[[/note]] a decade after it. Thus, Gabriel came to view ''Passion'' as a full studio album, which would technically make it his sixth to hold the distinction. That said, however, the fact that its release tied in with ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' (to the point where most releases subtitle it ''Music for The Last Temptation of Christ'') results in it generally being seen as more of a soundtrack album than a "proper" studio release. If one splits hairs, this could technically be Gabriel's fifth-and-a-half studio album by nature of this dual categorization.
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10	Because of the nature of its creation, the album is a marked deviation from the styles of music Gabriel had become known for, being an {{ambient}}-driven ProgressiveRock[=/=]NewAge album in which the songs are interlinked as a single unit, totaling to what is effectively a 67-minute Israeli symphony. Said symphony lacks any true lyrical content whatsoever, instead featuring occasional nonverbal vocalizations from both Gabriel and various session singers, and is punctuated by an immensely foreboding atmosphere true to the tone of Jesus' final days. There is, of course, also the elephant in the room of this being an overtly ChristianRock album from an artist whose music otherwise tended to be somewhat secular in tone, though given the film this album tied in with, this trait was somewhat inevitable (after all, making secularly-driven music about the central figure of the most widespread religion in the western world is about as easy as raising the dead).
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12	The album peaked at No. 29 on the UK Albums chart and No. 60 on the Billboard 200, later being certified gold in the United States. Additionally, alongside Music/DavidByrne's ''Music/ReiMomo'' (released later the same year), ''Passion'' has since been recognized as a major figure in the popularization of proper WorldMusic, following the mainstream decline of worldbeat in the latter half of the '80s.
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14	''Passion'' wasn't supported by any traditional singles. However, an AnimatedMusicVideo for "Zaar", using a portion of the 1987 Stefan Roloff film ''Lunch'', was aired on Creator/{{MTV}} as a form of promotion; the song would later be included on Gabriel's 1990 GreatestHitsAlbum ''Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats''.
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16	!!Tracklist:
17	!!!LP One
18	[[AC:Side A]]
19	# "The Feeling Begins" (4:00)
20	# "Gethsemane" (1:26)
21	# "Of These, Hope" (3:55)
22	# "Lazarus Raised" (1:26)
23	# "Of These, Hope -- Reprise" (2:44)
24	# "In Doubt" (1:33)
25	# "A Different Drum" (4:40)
26
27	[[AC:Side B]]
28	# "Zaar" (4:53)
29	# "Troubled" (2:55)
30	# "Open" (3:27)
31	# "Before Night Falls" (2:18)
32	# "With This Love" (3:40)
33
34	!!!LP Two
35	[[AC:Side C]]
36	# "Sandstorm" (3:02)
37	# "Stigmata" (2:28)
38	# "Passion" (7:39)
39	# "With This Love (Choir)" (3:20)
40
41	[[AC:Side D]]
42	# "Wall of Breath" (2:29)
43	# "The Promise of Shadows" (2:13)
44	# "Disturbed" (3:35)
45	# "It Is Accomplished" (2:55)
46	# "Bread and Wine" (2:21)
47
48	[-Note: CD copies are on a single disc; cassette copies are on a single tape, with each side containing the entirety of each disc from the double-LP release-]
49
50	!!"If I was a woodcutter, I'd cut. If I was a fire, I'd burn. But I'm a troper and I trope. That's the only thing I can do.":
51	* AnimatedMusicVideo: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZM6PejHMEY "Zaar"]] received one to promote the soundtrack, centering around an androgynous couple interacting while seated at a table. While the song wasn't released as a single, the video did well enough to get the track on Gabriel's first GreatestHitsAlbum the following year.
52	* ChristianRock: Technically the case, given the album's subject matter.
53	* ColorMotifs: The 2002 remaster ties in the album with the color burgundy, reflecting both the macro photo on the back cover and the blood Jesus shed on the cross (as the album was primarily the soundtrack to ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'').
54	* ConceptAlbum: True to [[Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist its parent film]], the album explores the final days of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} through instrumental music.
55	* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to ''Music/{{So}}'' before it, ''Passion'' is a much darker and more brooding album with an overwhelming tone of dread throughout most of its runtime, tying in with its subject matter about the final days of Jesus of Nazareth.
56	* {{Deconstruction}}: The album is a GenreBusting effort created as an attempt to create music similar to what could have been played in Israel during UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}' lifetime, with some AnachronismStew thrown in for good measure, generally taking Jesus away from the European High Culture trappings of Classical religious music which developed centuries later and in a land, continent, and culture far removed from First Century Israel.
57	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover is an appropriation of ''Drawing study for Self Image II'' (1987) by Julian Grater, displaying an elaborately mangled silhouette of Jesus wearing the Crown of Thorns.
58	* DroneOfDread: One forms the base leitmotif of "Gethsemane".
59	* EpicRocking: The TitleTrack stretches just over seven and a half minutes.
60	* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: The album cover features visual motifs that would become standard for Gabriel's Real World Records label for a good while. Namely, the album features a rainbow stripe that spans from the bottom-left corner of the front cover to the bottom-right quadrant of the back cover, as well as a macro photograph occupying most of the back cover. Like Gabriel's first proper studio album on the label, ''Music/{{Us\|1992}}'', the back cover is also predominantly red. A white stripe featuring the artist, album title, and barcode stretch across the top of the back cover and the upper spine, the WOMAD logo is present in the upper-right, and the tracklist is featured on the left side of the back cover in a white box.
61	* IHaveManyNames: Depending on who you talk to, this album is either ''Passion'' or ''Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ''. Gabriel tends to prefer the non-subtitled variant, though most releases include the subtitle for legal reasons.
62	* {{Instrumentals}}: The entire album is composed of these, owing to it being mostly a film soundtrack.
63	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The track "It Is Accomplished" is titled after the last words of Jesus in the Gospel of John (a marked contrast to the Synoptic Gospels' "Father, why have you forsaken me?"), which also acts as the closing line of the song's [[Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist parent film]].
64	* MinisculeRocking:"Gethsemane" and "In Doubt" both clock in at just a minute and a half.
65	* OneWordTitle: ''Passion'' (when excluding the subtitle), "Gethsemane", "Zaar", "Troubled", "Open", "Sandstorm", "Stigmata", "Passion", "Disturbed".
66	* OutOfGenreExperience: If one were to go by Gabriel's classification of this as a studio album, it would mark a stark contrast to all prior and subsequent releases in its darker, {{ambient}}-driven direction and overtly religious themes.
67	* PopStarComposer: An inevitability given that this is Music/PeterGabriel we're talking about.
68	* {{Retraux}}: To an extreme degree: the album seeks to approximate the kind of music that would've been played in Israel... during ''the first century AD'', owed in part to the [[Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist parent film's]] attempt at providing a more historically accurate portrayal of Jesus' time.
69	* SavedByTheChurchBell: "It Is Accomplished" uses a mixture of church bells and Gabriel's choral vocals to signify Jesus' ultimate triumph, dying on the cross as the final sacrifice to liberate mankind from sin.
70	* ShoutOut: The music video for "Zaar" is an excerpt from the 1987 Stefan Roloff film "Lunch".
71	* SiameseTwinSongs: Taken to its logical conclusion in that the whole album is intended to be viewed as a single, interconnected piece rather than simply a collection of related songs.
72	* SpeakingSimlish: Done liberally throughout the album as a substitute for lyrical vocals.
73	* SpecialGuest: It wouldn't be a Peter Gabriel album without it. The album features contributions from not only returning ''Music/{{So}}'' guests Youssou N'Dour and Lakshminarayana Shankar, but also Pakistani Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Senegalese singer Baaba Maal, Music/TearsForFears drummer Manny Elias, Ransom Hold frontman and frequent Gabriel collaborator David Rhodes, Armenian duduk player Vache Hovsepyan, Senegalese sabar master Doudou N'Diaye Rose, [[Music/BruceSpringsteen E Street Band]] member David Sancious, prolific session bassist Nathan East, Music/MilesDavis collaborator Billy Cobham, Mevlevi Sufi master Kudsi Erguner, and avant-garde trumpeter Jon Hassell in a wide variety of roles throughout the album.
74	* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Despite being permeated by an overwhelming sense of dread throughout most of its runtime, the album closes out with the triumphant-sounding "It Is Accomplished" and the peaceful "Bread and Wine", representing Jesus' ultimate triumph in redeeming mankind through His death, with His teachings living on to this day.
75	* SurrealMusicVideo: While primarily focusing on a couple at a table, the video for "Zaar" shifts between a number of different, loosely-connected scenes filled with abstract and metaphorical imagery.

Context Music / Passion