THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

The last Genesis album to feature Peter Gabriel on lead vocals. In my opinion it is the best album that Genesis created. I absolutely love Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound, but I just think this is the most refined album of the Gabriel era.

Its definitely not an immediate album to "get into", only after many listens does the music start to unravel its beauty to the listener. And my God it is beautiful... I truly believe this is some of the finest music ever committed to disc, regardless of genre. This just happens to be progressive rock!

That isn't to say there aren't flaws with this album. I think the general consensus with most Genesis fans is that the album is around 10-15 minutes too long, mostly on the 2nd LP. However I'm glad they released this as a double LP because there are some fantastic songs on the 2nd LP.

It is a very different album to previous Genesis releases, with much more emphasis on vocals and lyrics than before. Gone are the long instrumental passages such as on The Cinema Show. The instrumental sections are there, but they are more refined and held back than before. This is still very much a progressive rock album and still shares many similarities with previous Genesis albums.

The subject matter within the Lamb' is perplexing. At times I think I "get" what Peter Gabriel was trying to say, and at other times it makes no sense to me! Take whatever meaning you can get out of the lyrics and don't think about them too hard is my advice! The imagery and emotions that the lyrics conjure up is what is important to me. It is very emotive, and a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows throughout the 90 minutes!

The highlights of the album are many, and trying to list favorite songs would have me listing most of the tracks on the album! I do think "The Chamber Of 32 Doors" and "The Lamia" are absolutely stunning tracks though. The emotion of these two songs is brilliant, Gabriel really is a fantastic vocalist, and it really shows in these two songs...

A quick word on the rating. Yes, it got 5-stars from me. I had to think long and hard about this, because yes there are flaws on this album. There are 4 or 5 songs I could quite easily live without. But frankly the rest of the songs are so good that anything other than 5-stars would be an injustice.