"So Much" is a song by English musician

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

, released in July 2023 as the seventh single in promotion of his tenth studio album '' I/O''. Similar to other singles from the album, "So Much" was released to coincide with a full moon, starting with the Dark-Side Mix produced by

Tchad Blake Tchad Blake (born 1955) is an American record producer, audio engineer, mixer and musician. A native of Baytown, Texas, he has worked with artists and musicians including Al Green, American Music Club, Ani DiFranco, Apartment 26, Arctic Monke ...

. Later in the month, two additional mixes created by Mark 'Spike' Stent and Hans-Martin Buff were released.

Background

He started the song between 2015 and 2016 with the intention of writing something with a simple chorus that "still had a bit of character to it". He first revealed the song's title in 2020 when he responded to an article by Phillip Collins in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''. In his response, Gabriel described "So Much" as a "getting old song". Gabriel said that the song was about mortality and aging. He selected the title of "So Much" due to his "addiction to new ideas and all sorts of projects."

I get excited by things and want to jump around and do different things. I love being in a mess of so much! And yet it also means there's just so much time, or whatever it is, available. Balancing them both is what the song is about.

Gabriel claimed in his Full Moon Update that the song was a bit polarizing, that "it will split an audience" "about 50/50" with those who love it and those who don't care for it. According to Gabriel,

called it "the best thing that he has ever done." In addition to Blake's Dark-Side mix, a Bright-Side mix and In-Side mix, created by Mark 'Spike' Stent and Hans-Martin Buff respectively, were released on 17 July 2023. The Bright-Side mix included more prominent cello, bass, and guitar during the intro. Another mix of the song, dubbed the "Guitar Version), was oriented around electric guitar

arpeggio An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpe ...

s played by David Rhodes and also featured extra

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

and keyboards. Gabriel explained that he attempted to take the song in a different direction due to his belief that ''i/o'' "had enough piano". He later decided that the piano version felt more personal, so he reverted back to that arrangement.

Artwork

Henry Hudson created the cover artwork, titled ''Somewhere Over Mercia''. The artwork features a yellow horizontal line imposed over an indigo sky. Gabriel gravitated towards Hudson's work with

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

artwork surrounding horizons and said that Hudson wanted to undercut the horizon with a yellow streak so that it would seep into the rest of the painting. He believed that the cover artwork possessed "good symbolism" with how it conveyed an "infinite horizon" with a boundary.

Personnel

– vocals, backing vocals, piano, synths *

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer specializing in electric bass guitars, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (19 ...

– bass * David Rhodes – guitars * Melanie Gabriel – backing vocals * John Metcalfe – orchestral conductor * Oli Jacobs – engineering * Katie May – engineering ;Orchestra *Orchestral arrangement: John Metcalfe and Peter Gabriel *Violin: Everton Nelson, Ian Humphries, Louisa Fuller, Charles Mutter, Cathy Thompson, Natalia Bonner, Richard George, Marianne Haynes, Martin Burgess, Clare Hayes, Debbie Widdup, and Odile Ollagnon *Viola: Bruce White, Fiona Bonds, Peter Lale, and Rachel Roberts *Cello: Ian Burdge, Chris Worsey, Caroline Dale, William Schofield, Tony Woollard, and Chris Allan *Double bass: Chris Laurence, Stacy Watton, and Lucy Shaw *French horn: David Pyatt and Richard Bissill *Trumpet: Andrew Crowley *Euphonium: Andy Wood *Tenor trombone: Tracey Holloway *Bass trombone: Richard Henry *Tuba: David Powell *Orchestra conductor: John Metcalfe *Orchestra leader: Everton Nelson *Sheet music supervisor: Dave Foster *Orchestra contractor: Lucy Whalley and Susie Gillis

Charts

References

{{Peter Gabriel 2023 singles 2023 songs EMI Records singles Republic Records singles