THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

Peter Gabriel's oddball epic adventure swan song with the band, a fantastic double album. In the first half (disc 1), every song is brilliant, just masterful, covering a variety of styles, but all fitting together perfectly. Sure, it's hard to follow or make much sense of the sprawling narrative of Rael's bizarre journey in this concept album, but the music is sensational. Based just on the first half, this album ranks quite near the top of Genesis' output. However, the listening experience does falter somewhat in the second half (disc 2). There's still a lot of great stuff there as well (such as 'The Lamia', 'Lilywhite Lilith', 'Anyway', etc.), but both the story and the music bogs down considerably here with some tedious and lackluster sections that diminish the whole to some degree. Some sections are nothing more than noises, sound effects, and moody atmosphere that bring the flow of the album to a standstill. I have to admit that in order to improve the experience of the 2nd half, I made my own edited version, removing the offending sections and making the whole thing fit on a single CD, and it is much more enjoyable, and now I can enjoy the whole thing (or nearly whole thing). Still a great album (with ~80 of the 94 minute runtime being superb), but the weak parts in the second half keep it from being a true 5-star masterpiece. I would still rate it as 4.5 stars, but since the ratings here don't have half stars, have to go with 5 stars for the brilliance of the first half. Best songs: 'Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging', 'In the Cage', 'Back in NYC', 'Cuckoo Cocoon', 'Chamber of 32 Doors', 'Hairless Heart', 'Carpet Crawlers'. Weakest songs: 'The Waiting Room', 'Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats', 'Ravine', 'Colony of Slippermen-The Arrival'.