I had only heard Sledgehammer from this album before going in, but I was familiar with Gabriel's reputation as a formidable musician. However, nothing prepared me for this stonking great album. I was listening on a pretty crap set of headphones and it sounded killer. Switched to the proper set-up and So sounded even better. How is this possible? Great! And that's before you get me started on the songs. Intelligent pop music with hooks to spare and interesting little books everywhere. I realised I had heard "Don't Give Up" with Kate Bush before - on that track I really fell in love with Gabriel's tone of voice. I was so in the zone with this album that I was shocked when it ended after just 46 sublime minutes. Sidenote: I found it interesting that this album was released about a month after Tim Finn's Big Canoe album. Two 1970s art school kids in a weird band going big 80s pop with wider cultural commentary. But oh wow, Gabriel's album just drowns out what Tim Finn achieved with Big Canoe. So does everything Big Canoe did but just better and stronger. Must've felt pretty devastating to release the album you thought would be your big commercial breakthrough and just a month later Gabriel's album lands. Ooft.