THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

When I first bought this, I listened to a couple of times through, and then put it on a shelf for almost a year. I didn't get it. I was very dissapointed after hearing the amazing Genesis Live album. This probably should not have been my second Genesis album that I ever heard. Over the year after hearing it, I got Selling England, Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme and Tresspass. These were all so good, I figured I'd better pull out the Lamb again. Well, the first time through after the year of not listening to it, I began to appreciate it for what it was. After a half dozen more listens I came to the conclusion that I still hold years later: This is a great concept album. It is not a masterpiece, for the reason that seems to have set the tone for many modern prog bands double albums..........that is, some material seems like it was put in just to fill up space to make it double (or, in the case of Genesis, to give Gabriel time to change costumes). Having said that, I actually enjoy most of the interludes, and am that rare person that actually likes The Waiting Room. But on the whole, I think CD2 tends to drag a bit, with only a few tracks really standing out as being very good (Lamia, Slippermen). But even with that, I still love the album. The bizzare story of Rael works well for me because it doesn't really have a fixed interpretation (that I know of), allowing the listener to interpret it however they wish. Plus, it avoids the cliches of bands like Floyd, who are a bit to obvious in their "concepts". CD1 is great in every respect for me, and I often find that I will just listen to that one and not the second. I've also always disliked the song "IT", and find that it kind of spoils the ending for me (I would say I like pretty much all the rest of CD2, even though only a couple songs are great).

So, overall, a milestone in prog that many have tried and mostly failed to duplicate. For me it ranks as about 3 stars in comparison to the other Gabriel Genesis albums. But on the whole, especially considering it's historical significance for prog, it deserves no less than 4 stars.