Peter Gabriel, Rated PG

Album of the Week, October 24, 2026 I make mix tapes. I have since I was a teenager. We might call them mixes or playlists now—or “radio shows” when I’m doing something with Exfiltration Radio—but fundamentally they’re mix tapes. And making mix tapes carries with it a certain mindset. First, song order matters. Second, surprise is good. And one of the ways to surprise the listener is to take an artist they’ve heard and find a song by them they’ve never heard before. That’s why I have always loved b-sides and soundtracks; they tend to be places that these extra songs show up. And sometimes they’re really great in their own right. By the same token, I’m ambivalent about collections of these things. Often they’re a great way to find songs that I missed out on the first time around, but they also make that special song that I hunted for ever so slightly less special, since it’s easier to find. On the whole, though, I love that Rated PG, Peter Gabriel’s 2019 compilation of loose tracks…