THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

5 stars Double albums and story-driven concept albums are hard to digest, and this album is no exception, but every time you listen to this work you can always get a new meaning, a new sound or simply be moved by it in a different way than your last listen. This album, the last made by Genesis classic lineup with Peter Gabriel, stands out in the Genesis catalog as being different compared to the rougher, harder and darker trilogy of Trespass-Nursery Cryme-Foxtrot, and it is also different compared to the more clean, calmer and more technical Selling England By The Pound-A Trick Of The Tail-Wind And Wuthering. This album can be considered as Peter Gabriel's rehearsal for his solo career, as he is in charge of most of the album's lyrics and main story-concept, with him portraying the character of Rael in a spiritual journey of revelation beneath the wall of death from New York City, and always portraying the punk attitude and suffering through his voice, fairly more developed than the previous albums. Having said that about Peter Gabriel, the other band members shine in this double record, Phil Collins has a bigger drum kit than ever and makes some cool vocal interplay with Gabriel, Tony Banks plays lots of keyboards and uses more synths than in Selling England, Mike Rutherford still on his double- neck guitar bass duties makes a great rythmic base and while his 12 string guitar is not as present, his bass is more present than before, and Steve Hackett, while limited as always by his bandmates, he shines in the exact moment, playing some quirky guitar solos, harmonized passages and making lovely guitar dominated instrumentals.

The record is very long and I'm not gonna review every song, but there are highlights that need to be pointed out, such as Steve Hackett's beat drop with just a bent note, is one of his best moments of his entire career (and just playing one note!) not forgetting his funny solos on "Counting Out Time" and "Supernatural Anaesthetist", the keyboard solos on In The Cage, Colony of Slippermen, Ravine are some of Tony's best, and always kept in ground by Mike's aggresive but disciplined bass playing, Phil Collins plays very fast in "It" and his drum fills on the intimate and poetic "The Lamia" give the song a harder edge without losing any of the intimacy of that song. The story and Gabriel's highlights are "In The Cage" desperate vocals, "Back in NYC" with a rebel and explicit attitude from our character, and "The Lamia" and "Slipperman" sexual overtones.

The story is the most difficult part of the record but I think the record gatefold has some clues about the story, and there is whole animated video for the whole album and it is as closest we can get to a movie adaptation of a Genesis work. The story is very surreal and absurd, not unlike Genesis victorian tales but with a postmodern american setting, with themes of self- esteem, sex, death, loss of innocence all over the record. There is no definite explanation of the story such as "Quadrophenia" or "The Wall" but it is part of the Genesis myth.

I only recommend this albums If you already are into classic Genesis, but this record is a masterpiece given the time and patience, I can assure that it is worth it, or if you like Gabriel's solo career, this is Genesis most Gabriel-esque record.