The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

 

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was released in 1974

Track Listing:
1. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
2. Fly on a Windshield
3. Broadway Melody of 1974
4. Cuckoo Cocoon
5. In the Cage
6. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
7. Back in N.Y.C.
8. Hairless Heart
9. Counting Out Time
10. The Carpet Crawlers
11. The Chamber of 32 Doors

Disk 2
1. Lilywhite Lilith
2. The Waiting Room
3. Anyway
4. Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. The Lamia
6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats
7. The Colony of Slippermen
8. Ravine
9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway
10. Riding the Scree
11. In the Rapids
12. it.

Here we have it, Peter Gabriel's final Genesis album, they one they went too far on.  Gabriel took the reins for story and lyrics and devised some wild concept about a guy in NY.  I dont know the story, I'm not a huge fan of rock operas so I'm not going to go in depth there. 

The main problem here is the variety of this album.  I know its prog, but the best prog albums are cohesive, Lamb is anything but.  It's hard to enjoy an album that jumps from In thr Cage to Grand Parade to Back in NYC with nothing connecting these.  They have a couple of refrains/call backs but I don't think theyre really successful at tying it all together.

Also, they keys are becoming WAY more prominent.  In the Cage could be good, but Tony Banks isn't even doing anything interesting here, just repetitive trash.  Cut out the synth solo and it would greatly improve the song.

And their tendency to do stupid shit is on full display here.  Songs like The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging and The Waiting Room, probably add to the story, but man they distact from the listening experience.  Compare to The Wall (that also likes to do dumb shit).  The Wall treats these like interludes sandwiched between excellent songs, and they also clearly explain the story and that these are breaks in sanity.  Lamb doesn't do either of these things.  The story is vague and they let The Waiting Room take up a full 5 minutes.

Another major issue is just how repetitive each song can be.  Check out Back in NYC or The Carpet Crawlers.  They're just the same arpeggios for most of the song.

When they lean more on the hard rock chops of the band and let Hackett lead the show it leads to some of the best parts.  Counting Out Time is good with this.  The lyrics are stupid and they ruin the song with the "what the fuck was that" solo.  But Hacketts hard rocking chorus is great.  Same with it.  Hackett plays his heart out and the song is excellent.

There's an excellent album in here.  Cut out some of the nonsense, remove Gabriel's penchant for doing voices and fix the solo in Counting Out Time and this is up there with Foxtrot or Selling England.  BUT listening to the album front to back as it was released is a chore.  Its overlong, packed with long stretches of repetitiveness and useless instrumentals.  There's too much that takes the listener out of the album.

9 green songs and 3 red, this album is a mixed bag.  The first disk is PROBABLY better, but the bad is much worse there.  Disk 2 has less garbage but more background noise songs. I can't call this a 4, its just too frustrating

3.75/5

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