Big Blue Ball

Atypical Gabriel (2010-04-25) : 2/5
This was disappointing, given the other reviews. It seems quite bland without the idiosyncratic Gabriel sound.
Whole Thing... (2010-04-19) : 4/5
Being a fan of PG, I was just glad to have found it. The album exposes one to a variety of world musics, though I like the PG pieces, I kind of wish he would have let himself go more, but maybe I'm mistaking what this gathering was about, or what to have expected from it. I would think anyone who likes PG, what he's involved in, would like this album.
Forget Scratch My Back, order this forgotten gem! (2010-03-16) : 4/5
This CD came out very quietly in 2008 and is the result of some sessions Peter Gabriel had at his Real World studios, the tracks have been sitting around for years but have finally come to light. This is a very fine collection of songs featuring Peter and friends. Forget the disappointing Scratch My Back and order this one instead.
Big blue meh (2010-01-06) : 3/5
Peter Gabriel sat on these recordings for 18 years, I think, before getting around to having them produced and released properly. This history doesn't match the music inside. Nothing about "Big Blue Ball" feels grand or realized. It's all pretty hasty, underdeveloped, and lacking of a true centerpiece. There's probably a lot of pop/world music mesh ups out there that stand tall against this thoroughly average album. My bad...I liked "Up" so much and I honestly thought this album could compete with Peter Gabriel's best stuff.br /br /It's easy to get excited about the personnel that chipped in to the project. You've got Tim Finn, Vernon Reid, Sinead O'Connor, Deep Forest, the dude from World Party, Gabriel himself, and a smattering of musicians from around the globe of whom I have never heard. Regardless of what you think of these musicians, they are big, notable names. But the sum of these parts only amounts to a curiosity. One song I liked was "Habibe," despite its length. Occasional stabs at pop just don't go anywhere. "Jijy" makes me snicker and the final track is a snore. I listened to this album several times but now I don't have any motivation to go back to it.br /br /It's just too little too late. The reason this album didn't see the light of day for so long has to be the sub-par nature of the material. Why else would it have taken so long? Despite the long gestation period, the album still feels undercooked. I give it a `3' because everyone is keeping a steady beat, staying in tune, and generally playing their instruments pretty well. But at the end of the day, after such a long wait, that's about all I have to say about it.
Vintage Gabriel with a World Twist (2009-09-10) : 4/5
The arrival of Big Blue Ball took me back twenty years to the peak of Peter Gabriel and World Party's glory years. Two performers I enjoyed very much have joined forces with the best of World Music to create an amazing, diverse collection of songs. My entire family has enjoyed the virtuoso performances on this album. The synergy between the musicians is evident on many of the tracks, including "Exit Through You", "Everything Comes from You", "The Whole Thing", and "altus silva". Kudos to Stephen Hague for pulling together three weeks worth of jam sessions to compile this piece of music history that sounds as appropriate today as when it was recorded in the early to mid 90's.