Throughout his decades-long career as both a solo artist and a member of Genesis, Peter Gabriel has made a habit of tackling conceptually ambitious material by way of relatively approachable songcraft – sometimes just as structurally arcane, but always fundamentally catchy. His latest single, “Been Undone (Dark-Side Mix),” shows that even 11 solo albums deep, Gabriel has never lost that knack. “Been Undone” was released in advance of Gabriel’s upcoming album O/I, said by Gabriel to be largely centered around his own ruminations on how how mankind comes to grips with a rapidly approaching future heralded by a threefold wave of “AI, quantum computing and the brain computer interface.” O/I is mostly comprised of surplus material from Gabriel’s similarly titled 2023 release I/O, and, like its predecessor, each song of its songs will sport a “Light-Side” and “Dark-Side” mix released in accordance with the phases of the moon. The “Dark-Side” mix of “Been Undone,” courtesy of producer Tchad Blake, accompanies the Full Moon of January, sometimes referred to fancifully as the “Wolf Moon.”
Relatively identical to its “Bright-Side” counterpart aside from an thematically appropriate rebalance toward the low end and some decidedly darker synth tones, the “Dark-Side” mix of “Been Undone” retains Gabriel’s instantly familiar tenor at its forefront. Gabriel’s vocal sits easily atop a steady, understated beat touched with colorful keys and shimmering acoustic guitars in an aural concoction that will most likely ring a bell with anyone familiar with So, to “Down to Earth,” and so on. The bulk of “Been Undone” is an even-keel, hypnotic churn on this central groove, only occasionally punctuated by a chorus or refrain, and even so altered harmonically only just enough to inject a touch of buoyancy into the song’s cyclical, trance-like cadence.
While Gabriel’s lyrics are characteristically heady and opaque, his self-stated preoccupation with futurity remains evident in his verse upon closer inspection. He juxtaposes erudite references to mathematical and computational concepts side-by-side with more open-ended, emotional musings – interjecting “Mandelbrot Sets,” “Turing Machines,” and pleas for “more information” with emotional callouts to a “compassionate touch” and “a moment of grace.” All in all, Gabriel’s effort is both topically and musically meditative, calling attention to the mechanical complexity and humanitarian pathos of the matter at hand without devolving into the paranoia that often accompanies artistic appraisals of the looming specter of the digital future. Instead, with “Been Undone” Gabriel invites us, per the exhortation’s of the song’s chorus, to simply “just listen and feel.”