THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

I remember when I first heard The Lamb I was really pissed off. Just by seeing the song duration I realized something had changed in comparaison to SEBTP or Foxtrot. And after an hour and a half of appreciation my thoughts had became true.

There are no epic songs on this record , the longest one of them is The Cage clocking at 8 minutes. Moreover , there are no incredible instrumental passages here for musicians to show his talent ( Steve Hackett didn't like this fact of the record) and finally , the concept is a mess. So , If I were to appreciate The Lamb , I knew I was going to have a really hard time dealing with it. And 40 listens after , I can say that this record ain't half bad.

Actually when you get used to the Gabriel's overdose that is all around LLDOB ; you can say that 70 % of the record is a masterpiece. Yes , probably the first LP may be a total hit featuring some of the finest Genesis compositons like The Chamber of... or Carpet Crawlers. Musically I have to say this record features great use of the synthetizers by Tony Banks , specially on that solo on In the Cage or the instrumental part of Fly on a Windshield. The Lamb features some of the best drumming Phil had ever done up to that point ( In my opinion his work on A Trick of the Tail surpasses this)

The second record is not as strong as the first one musically but in turn , features the most interesting and weird part of the story: Rael's meeting with Lillywhite Lillith to then fall in a pool and be seduced by three Lamia... well , and I can go on but that's not the point here. For a more detailed explanation of The Lamb you should check on the net: The Annotated Lamb liesdown on Broadway , there you will find lots of paragraphs about the interpretation of this lyrics to make your Lamb experience much more enjoyable. Back to the music featured on the second LP , there are some weak tunes on here like Riding the scree , Ravine or The waiting room. But there are some really good tunes like the Lamia , The Colony of Slippermen or the closer It.

This record , I consider it essential although I don't find myself giving too much listens like other favourites. But everytime I do it's a marvellous experience. If there was a record that needed to have attached the word GROWER on it's sleeve , that is the Lamb.

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