THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

Not to be confused with the backwoods blue movie of the same name, the band's 6th studio album is simultaneously a logical progression from the developements of Selling England By the Pound and a look back to the other leanings of the earlier albums. As much as other double albums are called rock operas, this one strikes me as more of one than any of them. Yes, reading the story helps, but I think the story is better told through the lryics, sung super- emotionally by a now master of expression, Peter Gabriel. The music provided by the band is just as emotional, with many different styles emerging unexpectedly at key points in the story and dramatic effects and chord changes employed distinguishedly. I've heard many interpretations of the story, including meaninglessness, but I've always connected the excellent album art by Hipgnosis to the id/ego/superego correlation between the main character(s) that I seem to get from it, as well as being a possible spiritual allegory. There are moments of superb playing to be found here, namely in "In the Cage", "The Colony of Slippermen", and "Riding The Scree", (Phil Collins does a good John Bonham on the eerie "Broadway Melody of 1974", or "Fly On a Windshield" if you have the Genesis Definitive Edition Remaster CD), but the music as a whole focuses more on emotionally resonant dramatics like "The Chamber of 32 Doors", "The Lamia", and the closing "In the Rapids"/"it.". The sound and production also foreshadow some of the direction the band would take on the next few albums. Some wonder why this epic wasn't made into a movie, but I think the recording was pulled off so well that any attempt at recreating it visually would actually take away from the experience.