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Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway CD (album) cover

THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

Genesis

 

Symphonic Prog

4.31 | 3350 ratings

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VanVanVan
Prog Reviewer
4 stars In my opinion not Genesis' strongest effort. Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound are all 5 star albums in my book, but I do not think this one measures up. I've always felt that Genesis' strongest attribute was their ability to write extremely strong individual songs- The Musical Box, The Cinema Show, Dancing with the Moonlit Knight and of course Supper's Ready; even shorter songs like Harold the Barrel were incredibly powerful and musically dense.

Sadly, nothing here is quite as good. While the album as a whole is more musically ambitious than anything Genesis had done up until this point, the sum of the parts just do not add up to create anything as powerful as their previous three albums. I won't do a track by track, because the album is best listened to as a whole, but I will point out some standout tracks:

The Carpet Crawlers: Very beautiful, surreal, sedate track. The melodies and overall atmosphere are just incredibly powerful.

The Chamber of 32 Doors: Great closer for the first disk. Fantastic lyrics and a great chorus.

The Lamia: Easily my favorite track on the album. Changing motif many times, this song contains some of the most gorgeous melodies and harmonies on the entire album. Wonderfully atmospheric, hugely dramatic and containing some of the best lyrical imagery in any song ever.

The Light Dies Down on Broadway: A fairly simple song, but a very good one. A pseudo-reprise of the opening track as well as some themes from the Lamia, this song provides a lot of emotion and some really top-notch singing by Gabriel.

Recommended, but know that this is a very different sounding album from Genesis' previous three. Lots of shorter songs; there are a lot of really good ideas but not a lot of elaboration. A more difficult listen than Genesis' other work but definitely worth hearing.

VanVanVan | 4/5 |

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