Us (1992) by Peter Gabriel: 6 Songs on Radio Countdowns

Us, Peter Gabriel's sixth album, arrived in September 1992 on Real World and Geffen, his first proper album since So, the biggest seller he ever had, and a long wait after the soundtrack Passion in 1989. He produced it with Daniel Lanois at Real World Studios, and Us turns inward. This is Gabriel sifting through the wreckage of his late-'80s divorce, his relationship with actress Rosanna Arquette and the widening gap between him and his first daughter.

The sound is lush, deep and global, art rock and prog woven through with world music textures, rich enough to get lost in. "Digging In The Dirt" is the dark heart of it, a tense, coiled groove; "Come Talk To Me" swells and pleads; "Blood Of Eden" and "Washing of the Water" ache quietly. Elsewhere he loosens up: "Steam" is a sly, funky strut and "Kiss That Frog" grins all the way through.

It was a hit around the world, going to number two on both sides of the Atlantic and landing inside the top ten in a dozen further countries, and four singles came off it, "Steam" reaching number 10 in Britain. Gabriel promoted it with Xplora1, an early piece of interactive multimedia software for Macintosh computers that carried several of the album's videos, and took it on the road with the Secret World Tour in 1993 and 1994, captured on the Secret World Live album and concert film.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s	Years
1	Steam	1,300	22	#78	–	1992–2022
2	Digging In The Dirt	1,145	24	#12	–	1992–2022
3	Kiss That Frog	915	15	#45	–	1992–2014
4	Come Talk To Me	422	10	#41	–	1993–2024
5	Washing of the Water	39	1	#542	–	2004
6	Blood Of Eden	4	1	#855	–	2023

Song

Strength

Lists

Best

#1s

Years

Steam

1,300

#78

–

1992–2022

Digging In The Dirt