THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

This album deserves a book, not a freakin' little record review. There's so much going on here, musically and conceptually, it will take a lifetime to figure out. This is one thick album. It succeeds because it's not only a massively complex listen as a whole, but you can also take each song on its own and still enjoy it as an album full of lots and lots of great songs. It doesn't lose itself in the conceptual insanity if you don't want it to. If you do want to read into the lyrics and have fun with the concept, you have an infinite number of conceptual possibilities to consider. It's weird, man, weeeeeiiiiirrrrrrd.

Only the tension that was happening in Genesis at the time could've produced a work this eventful. Gabriel unfolds a most bizarre tale while the musicians-all putting in career performances--run through a dizzying variety of moods and tempos, from the epic ("In The Cage") and the simplistic ("Counting Out Time") to the fiery and innovative ("The Waiting Room", "Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist"). It's like they know this is the end of a very special era, and they do everything their massive talent-pool can to go out with a bang.

You hear some stuff occasionally about how the second half of this double-album isn't as eventful or memorable as the first half, but I've never heard it that way. For all its consistency, you get some of the deepest Genesis journeys in the final half, including "Anyway", "In The Rapids", "The Lamia", and a song that dates back to the band's beginnings, the gorgeous "Lilywhite Lilith". No, I don't hear the album faltering at all in the second half. Maybe it's people's attention spans failing? I don't know. All I know is if it seems sad that the Gabriel-era of Genesis didn't last a little longer, at least they left us with this mesmerizing and always-enjoyable monument, because this is as good as prog gets.