The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Genesis

Track	Score
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway	3	5
Fly on a Windshield	2	3
Broadway Melody of 1974	1	2
Cuckoo Cocoon	1	2
In the Cage	3	8
The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging	3	3
Back in N.Y.C.	2	5
Hairless Heart	2	2
Counting out Time	3	4
The Carpet Crawlers	4	5
The Chamber of 32 Doors	2	6
Lilywhite Lilith	2	3
The Waiting Room	1	5
Anyway	1	3
Here comes the Supernatural Anesthesist	2	3
The Lamia	2	7
Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats	0	3
The Colony of Slippermen	5	8
Ravine	0	2
The Light Dies Down on Broadway	3	4
Riding the Scree	3	4
In the Rapids	0	2
It	3	4
Total:	48	93
52%

The Lamb lies down on Broadway was the last Genesis record to include frontman and lyricist Peter Gabriel, and is often considered the peak of his work there. It's a double album rock opera, and it's a lot more complicated than I can really explain. I can however criticize it on a musical level if not a conceptual one.
The first track shares the album's name. The first thing we hear is some of Tony Banks signature keyboarding. This is followed by the rhythm section (no guitars) and the vocalised repetition of the title. The main problem with this song is that it gets too repetitive too quickly.
That's in stark contrast to Fly on a Windshield, the following song. It features soft guitar and vocals. Suddenly the music turns much darker (representative of the main character's death I believe), and the whole thing is very haunting.
You probably won't understand the lyrics in Broadway Melody of 1974, unless you're listening to it back then. The music though is really just very repetitive. In the end it changes back to soft guitar, but you probably won't hear it.
The instruments don't seem to work in harmony together until Cuckoo Cocoon. It even includes a flute solo! All up it's a nice song, but nothing really worth writing home about.
The fifth song, In the Cage, is the first long song on this album. It features a very repetitive bass riff, and some dark and foreboding keyboards. Unfortunately it also suffers from a lack of any real guitar work, and apart from a few keyboard solos injected at various points, it's quite a boring song. For some reason Peter Gabriel starts singing Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, in the middle, and that annoys me a lot.
The last song on the first side is The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging. The lyrics are about sexbots or something but that isn't important. It starts with a simple keyboard riff. Soon the drums are added in, and these could well be Phil Collins best effort (and no, I'm not being sarcastic). Gradually more parts are added in, including synthesised vocals, and it ends up being something crazy and wonderful. It's one of the few Genesis songs I think should be longer.
And so then we have Back In N.Y.C. and with it, we're back to repetitive bass and keyboard although at least the guitar has a noticeable role. The vocals are pretty annoying with all the shouting. The porcupine cuddling bits are somewhat interesting but still not really worth it.
This is followed by an instrumental, Hairless Heart. The keyboards are very overbearing, but work to brilliant effect. The guitars also work well, and give us quite a good song overall.
And then we have counting out time, which starts a long list of sexual metaphors (if that hadn't already started). The lyrics are hilarious, and the simplistic nature of the music adds to this. It's basically just keyboard, although some of the instrument parts are somewhat indescribable. It fits together well though.
This is followed by the renowned and perhaps somewhat overrated Carpet Crawlers. It's categorised by Steve Hackett's guitar tapping, which seems inhumanly fast. The rest of the instruments round out the performance well, and the vocal harmonies work brilliantly.
To round out the first record, we have The Chamber of 32 Doors. It starts with a short guitar piece, backed by a church organ. After that it's a boring slow vocal oriented song, and it doesn't progress much from there.
And to start off our second record we have Lilywhite Lilith. It starts with a pretty hard bass riff, and then fades to a poppish harmony between the two singers. And then back to the bass, and so on. It works well enough I guess.
But that's followed by The Waiting Room, a song which sinks to Moonchild badness. Somehow random noises just don't excite me. There's a saving grace at the end where the keyboard does some stuff, but even then it's not really that great.
The third song on the second record is called Anyway. It features a fast piano line, throughout the song, and pretty much everything you'd expect from the songs that have played until now. After a while (an annoyingly long while too) we get to hear another guitar solo, so it isn't too bad.
And then we have the Supernatural Anesthesist. There's only one line, and then it's all instrumental. And all four instrumentals work well here, with few complaints.
The Lamia is the second long song on the album, and the fifth song on this particular side. The instruments are interesting enough, although they're sort of repeated for far too long, and aren't really that interesting to begin with.
And, taking it's title from the last song, we have another instrumental to round out the first side of the second record. Unfortunately, Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats is only really ambient noise. Nothing really to say about it at all.
And to start the fourth and final side of the album is the mini-epic, The Colony of Slippermen. The first two minutes are just random noises. Then we suddenly meet one of Tony Banks' best keyboard riffs. This is followed by a rather disturbing keyboard solo. And back to the riffs. And another solo (not so disturbing this time). And then it starts to get repetitive. Overall the music is rather good. I won't bother commenting on the lyrics though.
All of that leads us to the final instrumental on this album, Ravine. Ravine is pretty much just wind noise and ambient effects again. On the plus side, it doesn't sound painful, and it doesn't go on for too long either.
The next song is basically a reprise of the first one, which you could probably guess from the title. The Light Dies Down on Broadway also takes a few other musical ideas shown previously. It's the only song to have lyrics not written by Peter Gabriel, but the music still works very well (even if guitars are inaudible).
Riding the Scree, the fourth song on the fourth side, starts with pretty funky guitar and bass, which is followed up by speed keyboarding. While it all gets repetitive you have to appreciate that skill. There's singing as well, but not much of it, and it doesn't have quite the effect of the keyboard solo.
The second last song on the album, In the Rapids, slows down a bit. Basically, it's just vocals really. And really soft vocals at that.
Which leads us to the thrilling conclusion that is It. It contains one of the few Genesis guitar riffs you're likely to remember, backed up by a great bassline. The lyrics don't really conclude that well, but they're interesting in their own way. The important thing really, is that it finishes the album on a good note.
Personally I'm not a great fan of this album. The music is spread pretty sparsely, and the highest points aren't really that high (even for Genesis). However, bear in mind that I value instrumental skill and compositional talent above pretty much all else. This album was made to get a particular concept across (i.e. the afterlife) and so the lyrics are the crux of it. That said if you like albums which are particularly lyrical or conceptual, you'll probably love this album.
More reviews
If you want an in depth look at what this album's really about take a look Here.