Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
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CD Details
Artist: GenesisEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1994-09-20
Music Label: Atlantic / Wea
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
- Fly On A Windshield
- Broadway Melody Of 1974
- Cuckoo Cocoon
- In The Cage
- The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging
- Back In N.Y.C.
- Hairless Heart
- Counting Out Time
- Carpet Crawlers
- The Chamber Of 32 Doors
- Lilywhite Lilith
- The Waiting Room
- Anyway
- Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist
- The Lamia
- Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats
- The Colony Of Slippermen (The Arrival/A Visit To The Doktor/Raven)
- Ravine
- The Light Dies Down On Broadway
- Riding The Scree
- In The Rapids
- It.
Music reviews of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Music Review: ALMOST a classic, but "The Lamb" needs to go on a diet.
Rating: 4 Stars
I'm sure die-hard Peter-Gabriel-era Genesis fans will think I'm the Antichrist for saying this, but I wish "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" was released as one long, single album. For an album touted as one of the greatest prog-rock masterpieces ever, it should be better. And the only thing that really needed to be done was to trim the fat. On the positive side, the stuff that is good here is some of the best Genesis ever did with Peter Gabriel. If a rock opera is what they had in mind, the top of the opening title track is the lights going down, the orchestra starting the overture, and the layers of curtains opening and lifting in grand fashion. The words of the album's title are the first lyrics you hear, and they're sung with so much pomp and circumstance, that all it takes is one listen and you will never forget the hook.
The mood then goes from the fanfare of the title track, to dark imagery on "Fly on a Windshield" and "Broadway Melody of 1975", to the ray-of-sunshine relief of the pretty guitar and piano melodies of "Cuckoo Cocoon", before wandering into the dark and dangerous alley of the album's highlight, the desperate, complex, and rocking "In the Cage." It's a shame the best and most climactic song on the album (especially a double album) comes within the first fourth of the record. Side 1 is topped off with the ultimately quasi-cataclysmic "Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging."
The next 5 tracks (side 2 of album 1) start out promising with "Back in NYC", a keyboard-driven song that shifts between rhythms in 7/8, 6/8, 4/8, and 3/8, but somehow never sounds forced or awkward. And for all those who only know Phil Collins as love song cheese ball, it's so cool to hear him pounding out time signatures worthy of Neil Peart and Bill Bruford. But then, the album starts to show signs of losing focus. "Counting out Time" has a catchy melody, and shows that prog rock can still have a sense of humor. But that warbly horn-synth "solo" right after Gabriel says something like, "Zip-a-zip, zip, a-zip, zipppy zip WHOO-HOO!"... oh my God. That's one of those moments that fans should cringe at, b/c it supports the notions that prog is completely silly. This is followed by apparent fan favorite "The Carpet Crawlers," although I am one Genesis fan who will never understand why this particular song has been included on a live album, and was redone for a best-of compilation. It isn't awful, but it's just kind of boring.
This brings us to side 3. After a rare (in those days) Phil Collins lead vocal on "Lillywhite Lilith", the psycho noise-fest "The Waiting Room", the King Crimson-ish "Anyway", and a promising opening riff on "The Supernatural Anaenesthetist", side 3 falls apart into boring, ultimately forgettable piano ballads. The last 2 tracks sound like they were written just because they needed to tell more story, so they threw some chords together, and let Gabriel basically explain what happens next. It's not so horrible that there are duds on this album; but if you're going to make a listener sit through an album this long, what you do include on the record had better be strong material.
By side 4, the listener starts to feel like you probably do right now reading this long review -- "Is this almost over yet?" Thankfully, "The Colony of Slippermen" includes some Tony Banks keyboard licks that are so melodic, they sound like a musical version of spoken dialogue between the Slippermen themselves. After "Ravine", we get "The Light Dies Down on Broadway." Aurally exhausted by this point, it is a solid emotional payoff that there is finally a feeling of some closure in sight. It's a quieter, mellower variation of the original theme, possibly to suggest the weariness of the main character as his long journey (and ours as well) is coming to an end.
But it's STILL not the end. There are still THREE SONGS LEFT. And they're pretty good, although "It" sounds like the theme of a mid-'70's TV action show. ("Starring Peter Gabriel as Johnny Slipperman.") "Riding the Scree" is a near-rocking tune, with more great keyboards from Banks, that on a shorter album (or at an earlier point in this one) would be a standout. But by this point, we're too tired to care. We're led to believe that "Dies Down" is the finale of "Lies Down", and lying down for a nap sounds pretty good by this point -- and then we hear still more music. And it's pretty good music, but even the most delicious dessert isn't appetizing when you've just stuffed yourself with 3 other huge, rich, and very filling courses.
If they kept this album a few tracks shorter, and cut to the chase sooner on a few others, it would live up to the legendary status it has achieved in the eyes of Genesis fans. There would be a feeling of excitement to pull out this album for a spin again, without the feeling of, "Oh boy, do I want to get into something this big right now?"
As far as interpretations to the story's meaning... oh come on, who really cares? Do concept albums really make much sense anyway? As far as I know, "In the Cage" is about monkees at the zoo. And that'd be just fine with me.
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