THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

Pretty overrated album. Some people think that this is so great as a concept album. What concept? There might be an empty lyrical concept about some guy in New York, but musically, we can't talk about a concept album. Most of the songs are separated from each other and they could be listened in a random order. Some songs are connected but the bridge section is usually very forced (for example, think about that one keyboard note holding on between The Light Dies Down On Broadway and Riding The Scree or the obscure and quiet sound between Cuckoo Cocoon and In The Cage. This way practically any album could be forced into a concept form). The only exceptions are Hairless Heart/Counting Out Time and In The Rapids/It. The album is not such continuum as Dark Side Of The Moon or any real concept album. There are no necessary repetitions of certain themes, only forced ones. And the stuff itself is mostly filler. I can mention only few memorable songs: the title track, In The Rapids/It and In The Cage (which is ruined by Gabriel's weak vocals, Collins does it much better). The Carpet Crawlers would be a fine pop song but the endless repeating of the same things irritates me. And to the top (or the bottom?) of it all, Gabriel does quite neutral job here. No such vocal performances as in Willow Farm or The Musical Box that you can either love or hate are accomplished here. Only the title track has a couple of good screams and other funny things.