History Music / So

* StopMotion: Almost the entirety of the video for "Sledgehammer" consists of this, courtesy of Creator/AardmanAnimations, combining claymation, puppets, raw chickens, and especially pixilation. The extensive and highly creative use of the technique throughout the video led to it becoming an '80s icon, the most acclaimed music video ''ever'', and the most famous entry in Gabriel's filmography, to the point where many of his later videos (most notably [[Music/{{Us}} "Steam"]]) were direct responses to it. The video for "Big Time" also falls into this, a collaboration between Aardman and New York animator Peter Walach, featuring a lot more claymation than the previous video.

On a more dubious note, the album's creation also marked the slowing-down of Gabriel's creative process as an artist. Unlike prior records, which took only a few months at most to record, Gabriel spent almost the entirety of 1985 putting together ''So'', with later studio albums only taking longer and longer to come out. Gabriel later admitted that this was the result of AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder, constantly taking on other commitments that end up stalling album production. Gabriel's next studio album after ''So'', ''Music/{{Us}}'', would take nearly three years to complete, and [[Music/UpPeterGabrielAlbum the album after that]] took seven. While the two albums after that, ''Scratch My Back'' and ''New Blood'', were both completed fairly quickly, those were a CoverAlbum and a series of re-recordings of old material, respectively; ''Scratch My Back'' also only started production seven years after its predecessor's release. His prospective tenth studio album (and eighth of original studio material), ''[=I/O=]'', is still in production to this day.

->"''The place where I come from is a small town\\

I'll be stretching my mouth to make those big words come right out''"

# "In Your Eyes" (feat. Youssou N'Dour) (5:27)[[note]]Prior to 2002, this song was placed as the fifth track; Gabriel always planned for this song to be the last one on the album, but he decided to move it to the start of side two to allow the bass to sound more prominent on LP copies (as the velocity of a point on a spinning disc increases the further one moves from the center).[[/note]]

* AndStarring: Music/KateBush sings along during "Don't Give Up." Unlike her prior appearances on Gabriel's [[Music/{{Melt}} "No Self Control" and "Games Without Frontiers"]], Bush was given co-billing alongside Gabriel on the song's single release, and consequently the single is generally considered a part of both artists' back-catalogs.

!! Tracklist:

# "In Your Eyes" (feat. Youssou N'Dour) (5:27) [[note]] Later editions of the album have this as the ninth track instead of the fifth track; Gabriel originally planned for the album to be in that order, but later decided to move it to the start of side two to allow the bass to sound more prominent on LP copies (as the velocity of a point on a spinning disc increases the further one moves from the center). [[/note]]

# "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" (feat. Music/LaurieAnderson) (4:25)[[note]]Initially exclusive to CD and cassette copies; Gabriel had this added in at the last minute per his own request.[[/note]]

!! ''I've been troping the rhythm'':

* FaceOnTheCover: Gabriel's face in close-up. Notably, the image lacks any of the effects seen on Gabriel's prior album covers; according to him, this was a deliberate decision after being informed that his previous covers alienated female audiences.

** The album cover's "DeliberatelyMonochrome headshot of artist against a white background with a simple but striking logotype on the side" design is a nod to ''Music/LowLife'' by Music/NewOrder; Peter Saville designed the cover art for both records, and has a penchant for carrying over design elements from album to album in a short span of time. The style of the photo is also based on the work of photographer David Bailey.

* TextlessAlbumCover: While most releases of ''So'' feature a logotype of the album title and artist name, on LP releases this is simply a small removable sticker, a-la a Music/PinkFloyd album.

* FaceOnTheCover: Gabriel's face in close-up.

** The album cover's "DeliberatelyMonochrome headshot of artist against a white background with a simple but striking logotype on the side" design is a nod to ''Music/LowLife'' by Music/NewOrder; Peter Saville designed the cover art for both records, and has a penchant for carrying over design elements from album to album in a short span of time.

* NotChristianRock: Despite featuring vaguely faith-related themes in its lyrics, "In Your Eyes" is not meant to be a profession of faith by any means, though Gabriel is not adverse towards interpretations of the song that depict it as such.

* StopMotion: Almost the entirety of the video for "Sledgehammer" consists of this, courtesy of Creator/AardmanAnimations, combining claymation, puppets, raw chickens, and especially pixilation. The extensive and highly creative use of the technique throughout the video led to it becoming an '80s icon, the most acclaimed music video ''ever'', and the most famous entry in Gabriel's filmography, to the point where many of his later videos (most notably [[Music/{{Us}} "Steam"]]) were direct responses to it.

His final album on Charisma Records, with whom he had been signed to since his days with Music/{{Genesis}}, the album marks a shift to a more accessible art pop direction compared to the more abstract style of his previous albums. Making greater use of radio-friendly song structures and instrumentation while still focusing on a WorldMusic sound (particularly traditional African and Brazilian music) and heavy use of digital sampling via the Fairlight CMI, it stands in stark contrast to the ProgressiveRock of his first two albums and the experimental PostPunk-meets-worldbeat sound of his third and fourth records, and would set the precedent for his following work even after he shifted back to a more obtuse direction. The album also sees a greater number of guest vocalists than previous albums, featuring backing parts by Music/KateBush, Youssou N'Dour, and Music/LaurieAnderson (Bush had previously appeared on Gabriel's [[Music/{{Melt}} "No Self Control" and "Games Without Frontiers"]] in 1980). Additionally, it is Gabriel's first album to not be a SelfTitledAlbum, owing to increasing pressure from both Charisma and his American label Creator/GeffenRecords, the latter of whom had previously forced Gabriel to retitle his fourth album ''Music/{{Security}}'' in the US and Canada.

* CelebrityIsOverrated: The ironic IWantSong lyricism of "Big Time" was written as Gabriel's means of examining his fame as both the former frontman of Music/{{Genesis}} and a solo artist, questioning whether or not he'd wanted it in the first place.

** Indian violinist Lakshminarayana Shankar performs violin parts on "That Voice Again" and "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)". Shankar had previously collaborated with Gabriel's former Music/{{Genesis}} bandmate, Music/PhilCollins.

-->My Heaven will be a big Heaven
-->And I will walk through the front door

* DoubleEntendre: "Sledgehammer" is packed to the rafters with these; the very first line has the narrator promising his love interest a "steam train," and he doesn't let up from there.

-->''Oh let me be your sledgehammer''
-->''This will be my testimony''
-->''Show me 'round your fruitcage''
-->''Cause I will be your honey bee''
-->''Open up your fruitcage''
-->''Where the fruit is as sweet as can be.''

* MoneySong[=/=]IWantSong: Done satirically with "Big Time".

* SmallTownBoredom: As shown in the quote on top of the page, it's heavily implied that the narrator of "Big Time" feels this way.

* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: The ending of "Big Time", as seen above under DoubleEntendre.

# "In Your Eyes" (feat. Youssou N'Dour) (5:27) [[note]] Later editions of the album have this as the ninth track instead of the fifth track; Gabriel originally planned for the album to be in that order, but later decide to move it to the start of side two to allow the bass to sound more prominent on LP copies (due to the intricacies of the way needles move on vinyl records). [[/note]]

* AtomicHate: "Red Rain" has been interpreted as referring to the fallout at Hiroshima, which was experienced as exactly that.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: "That Voice Again" was based on discussions Gabriel had with Creator/MartinScorsese about scoring ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'', which was in pre-production during ''So''[='s=] own production; consequently, the song acts as a rough prelude to Gabriel's full soundtrack album for the film, 1989's ''Passion''. By pure coincidence, ''So'' was the last album Gabriel released on Charisma Records (which was absorbed into Creator/VirginRecords shortly after the latter's buyout by Creator/{{EMI}}), and ''Passion'' was the first album Gabriel released on his new vanity label, Real World Records (though his first proper studio album on the label was ''Music/{{Us}}'' in 1992).

** The pixilation-heavy StopMotion video for "Sledgehammer" is a deliberate nod to a scene in the video for [[Music/LittleCreatures "Road to Nowhere"]] by Music/TalkingHeads, of whom Gabriel was a FandomVIP. A nod to the same Talking Heads video also appears in that for "Big Time", which has a brief scene of Gabriel sitting in an elaborate throne room similar in design to the one Music/DavidByrne sits in during "Road to Nowhere".

** Music/KingCrimson bassist and regular Gabriel collaborator Tony Levin plays bass on the first five tracks of the album, plus drumstick bass on "Big Time".

** Indian violinist Lakshminarayana Shankar performs violin parts on "That Voice Again" and "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)".

** "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" is an alternate version of Music/LaurieAnderson's own song "Excellent Birds" (on which Gabriel provided backing vocals).

* SurrealMusicVideo: Comedic ones with "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time", the latter of which is best described as "Sledgehammer" turned UpToEleven.