THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

Conceptually, Lamb is a very unique and interesting album. It follows the young man Rael (an anagram for real I'd suppose) through a journey consisting of many different sets of scenery, including the dense urban landscapes of New York, the surreal and claustrophobic nature of the cage, and much more, including chambers, corridors, and a ravine. In full honesty, the true meaning of Lamb is shrouded in mystery and metaphor, to a point of which a hundred people could listen to the album, and all have different interpretations of the true meaning of Rael's adventure.

To describe this album as more of a Peter Gabriel solo album wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. In fact, the sound approached by Peter Gabriel's albums [1] and [2] is very similar to Lamb, especially when contrasted to Genesis's next album, which would stylistically be a somewhat of a return to Genesis's "Selling England..". And despite this being true to a degree, there is some notable input from the rest of the band, especially the luscious instrumentals inside the track "In The Cage", performed by Tony Banks.

CD1 (Side 1 & 2) is arguably the pinnacle of progressive rock, and my favourite album (or in this case, half an album) of all time. It is flawless to almost every degree, only stumbling on the boring instrumental "Hairless Heart" and the okay song which closes the disc, and by extension closing side 2 "The Chamber Of 32 Doors". The album truly hits highs on the songs "In the Cage", being an atmospheric masterpiece that not only reaches the limits of Peter Gabriel's lyricism, but also the keyboard skills of Tony Banks, almost to the extent of "Firth of Fifth", and also the "Carpet Crawlers", not only once again showing the poetry of Peter Gabriel, but also his abilities as a singer, with a thick, beautiful, & somewhat frightening atmosphere created both with Gabriel's soft silk like voice, & the beautiful keyboards of Tony Banks. There's also the pop track in "Counting Out Time", but it doesn't work with the album, & I feel it only really serves as the albums single, & is something that I feel serves as the tracks most thin & shallow track.

CD2 (Side 3 & 4) is something that for me was rather inaccessible, at the start. When I'd first stumbled upon prog (which truthfully, was only a several months ago - before then I was big on hard rocking bands like AC/DC & Led Zeppelin), I was rather closed minded, only really enjoying the symphonic anthems like "In The Cage", "Firth of Fifth", "Yours is No Disgrace", "I've Seen All Good People", & "Roundabout", the strange combination of prog, folk, & hard rock found in Jethro Tull, & the spacy psychedelic rock of the late 60s. And that's when I first penned this review. Since then I've come across all sorts of brilliant music, from the likes of Gentle Giant & Frank Zappa, to Miles Davis, & even to the electronic music of Brian Eno, & Kraftwerk. And this has allowed me to enjoy the second half of this album far more than I originally did.

It opens up with the short, somewhat upbeat "Lillywhite Lilith", before going onto "The Waiting Room", one of Genesis's most conflicting songs. If I were to sit here & claim that "The Waiting Room" was a masterpiece equal in quality to "In The Cage", I'd be nothing short of a liar, & in all honesty, to this day I don't care for it, but it serves a nice break in a very brilliant album, & the instrumental that comes in at the three minute mark is rather wonderful. It's nowhere near the nonsensical, unnecessary track that's Black Sabbath's "FX", as unlike it, it serves a purpose, both in story, & musically. "Anyway" is a beautiful, melancholic ballad, something that really compliments the album, & serves as one of the best tracks here.

& then there's the wonderful "Here Comes The Supernatural Anesthetist", once again showing that Gabriel is a great singer, with a good range, and more wonderful musicianship, this time a Steve Hackett solo, that's upbeat, until about the two minute mark, in which is becomes rather foreboding, & ominous atmosphere which builds up to "The Lamia", which is a track that builds upon itself, & has some beauty to it, rather than being the 'large' song that is "In The Cage", it's a song that builds beauty, & emotion, like "Anyway", & is this albums second masterpiece, although isn't remembered as one of genesis's masterpiece, due to as a said earlier, it isn't particularly 'large', but rather ominous, especially around the 2 and a half minute mark, before the next verse.

"Silent Sorrows In Empty Boats" is the best instrumental on the album, and again, has a certain sense of beauty to it, and this time some sense of happiness. "The Colony Of Slippermen" is another lengthy track, yet this time has no qualities that make it too rememberable.

"Ravine", is one of the least interesting instrumentals in this album, & leads onto the amazing last four tracks, "Light Dies Down..." a gloomy reprise of "Lamb Lies Down.." akin to Gentle Giant's "Proclamation" & "Valedictory", in terms of how the latter track uses the former track, to show a gloomier side of it. "Riding The Scree" is a seemingly funky track, until it very quickly isn't, & "In The Rapids/ It" provides a true end to the story (a story which I'd already lost track of), & "It" seems to really try as hard as it can to be the most repetitive song I've ever heard, and is just a bit annoying in all honesty, when the album should've ended on the last track.

This is an album that manages to hit supersonic highs throughout, while managing never to hit a low point, & simultaneously tells a semi-coherent story o fa boy named Rael. It's easily one of Genesis's best works, & I feel only beaten by their previous album.