Gabriel hired several additional musicians to play on the album, including guitarist Robert Fripp and bassist Tony Levin.

He had announced the decision to leave the band early into their tour supporting The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974),[8] citing estrangement from the other members, the strains on his marriage, and his wish to spend more time with his family.

One of those songs, "Excuse Me", was written in 1975 with poet Martin Hall, a creative partnership that predated Gabriel's departure from Genesis.

Some of the musicians, including synthesizer player Larry Fast and guitarist Robert Fripp, were selected by Gabriel to tackle his soundscape-oriented ideas.

[10] Other musicians, including drummer Allan Schwartzberg, percussionist Jimmy Maelen, guitarist Steve Hunter, and keyboardist Jozef Chirowski were also recruited for the album.

An alternative proposal was to feature a photograph of Gabriel wearing contact lenses intended to give his eyes the appearance of metallic ball bearings; this was included on the inner sleeve.

The first leg of his debut solo tour, entitled "Expect the Unexpected", started on 5 March 1977 in the United States and continued until April.

A second leg assembled a different band, which included Sid McGinnis on guitar, Levin on bass, Jerry Marotta on drums and Bayeté on keyboards.

[23] The "Sightings in the Test Area During Autumn" leg began on 30 August and saw the band play throughout England and Europe before concluding on 1 November 1977.

Rolling Stone critic Stephen Demorest described Peter Gabriel as "a grab bag collection of songs that bear little resemblance to one another" and called it "an impressively rich debut album".

[34] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice found it "a lot smarter" than Gabriel's past work in Genesis, and despite noting that "every time I delve beneath its challenging textures to decipher a line or two I come up a little short", felt that the album was "worth considering".

[33] Nick Kent, writing in NME in 1978, said that Peter Gabriel was "a fine record with at least one 24-carat irresistible classic in 'Solsbury Hill' and a strong supporting cast of material that, all in all, in a year besmeared with great albums was, in retrospect, sorely underrated".