The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

I don't think i summarized how perfect this album is. Though i might not think all the songs are perfect on their own (Like i'm never gonna listen to The Waiting Room just randomly), it's the sum of the parts that's better. When you listen to the album in full, the songs are perfect. Flowing into one another seamlessly, each song fulfills being another part of the story, and the story is insane. I'm not gonna write it here, because i want to talk about what i think of the album.

In February this year, i was sick of having very few bands in my circulation (Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, and Pink Floyd), so i decided to go onto Reddit and ask people what they thought i should listen to to expand my taste. And one person said The Doors' debut. So i listened to the first 2 songs and didn't care for it (i loved it on relisten). So then, still determined to find an album that would expand my taste, i searched up on google, simply "best albums of all time". And what i ended up listening to brought me to this one special album...

...It was In The Court Of The Crimson King. I listened to it and it blew my mind. I realized i liked this genre... "Oh, what's this called, progressive rock? Huh, this is good!" And so after that i searched up "famous prog bands". Of course there was Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, but one stood out to me, and i knew i needed to hear them... GENESIS. and elp

I listened to every King Crimson album, but in the meanwhile, i also listened to every Genesis album on the side. From Genesis To Revelation was mid. Trespass was better, but still didn't grab me. Nursery Cryme is where it happened. The second Musical Box started i loved Genesis. Foxtrot was even better, containing a top 3 song of all time for me (Supper's Ready). Then Selling England By The Pound. Maybe it was just because i was really happy that day, but i ADORED this album. I couldn't get enough of all the songs, but especially Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, and More Fool Me. But then i got to The Lamb. And i was EXCITED. People had hyped this album so much on all sites, i knew it couldn't live up to the praise. But it did. Oh, it did.

This is just absolutely a perfect album. Side A specifically is one of the best sides in music. Cuckoo Cocoon into In The Cage is absolutely insane. The B side is amazing too, Back In N.Y.C. Is so, sosososososososososososososososososososososo perfect. The Carpet Crawlers incorporating the sound of the title tracks is so cool and that song is amazing. The Chamber Of 32 Doors is somehow better, just the lyrics and the best part on the album has to be "And every single door i've walked thruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu......................... BRINGS ME BACK, BACK HERE AGAIN!" The echo after the note is so good. Then the C side is great, Lilywhite Lilith being the continuation of The Chamber Of 32 Doors is perfect and this song is so catchy. Anyway is genuinely one of the greatest songs i've ever heard. The instrumentals and the verses, ohhhhhhhh it's perfect. The Lamia is just perfect, i don't have much more to say about it. D side's also perfect, The Colony Of Slippermen has 3 sections and they're all amazing. The Arrival is really good, but A Visit To The Doktor is the best part of the song. "YOU'RE IN THE COLONY OF SLIPPERMEN! THERE'S NO WHO? WHY? WHAT? OR WHEN?" Its chorus is so catchy, amazing. The last mainly notable songs on the album is The Light Dies Down On Broadway and it. The former being the 2nd song to incorporate elements of the title track (Carpet Crawlers was the 1st), since it's just a reprise of the title track. And the latter being one of the most upbeat songs ever, which is weird considering (SPOILERS) | Rael goes through hell until this song, when he discovers himself. It's the greatest double album of all time. And one of the greatest of all time in general.

There's also this animation for this album that tells the story through visuals. Link down below. And i'll also have a link for the Wikipedia page so you can read the story of the album and understand it. And also, if you made it here, thanks for reading my review and seeing how much this album means to me. This album changed my life. And it only happened 9 months ago. Just to show how much this album changed me, since Genesis, i've listened to every ELP and APP album. Some of my favorite prog bands and just bands in general. And without Genesis i wouldn't have listened to this album. This album is utterly perfect. And i adore it.

Animation: https://youtu.be/JszTrQdL314?si=gQKpAyjFvjX18LCZ
Wiki Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lamb_Lies_Down_on_Broadway

Best songs: The lamb lies down on broadway, In the cage, Back in N.Y.C. it. Anyway, The light dies down on broadway, The chamber of 32 doors, The grand parade of lifeless packaging, The carpet crawlers, The lamia.
In the middle songs: Broadway melody of 1974, Counting out time, The colony of Slippermen, Lilywhite Lilith, Fly on a windshield, In the rapids, Cuckoo cucoon, Here comes the supernatural Anaesthetist, Silent sorrow in empty boats, Hairless heart, Riding the scree.
Worst songs: Ravine, The waiting room.

Prog rock meets show tunes . I know it’s well done but I just find it dull

Sweeping the gamut from amazing to boring while always being way to Ernest and deep for its own good. And that’s just the first song.

Would be 3 stars if it was not so long and over-bloated . A trim single album would be almost good

mais um desses disco de prog conceitual que eu não consigo me importar MINIMAMENTE pra história.
dito isso, o primeiro disco eh bem legal, na real. o segundo já começa a ficar meio chatinho, até pq eh bem longo. mas não eh ruim não, fiquei surpreso. achei que fosse odiar grandão.
é bem interessante, várias texturas. um bom prog pra quem curte aí!

Good music... lots of it, and it washed into a big claggy lump

Such an exceptionally well put together concept album. Music is big and sweeping and a masterpiece.

Of the two albums I got this week with Peter Gabriel on them, this one is certainly umm… the longer one? There is a world of difference between this and what he was doing later in his career and thank god he changed

interesting but not for me

The 1st album was really enjoyable, and the opener for album 2 was good. It kind of falls apart after that.

“You gotta get in to get out!”

Yeah, one of my favorite things about this project is when I get to be reminded of a record like this, something I used to love and listen to all the time 50-some (!) years ago but eventually moved on from. (And then realize that I can still sing along with “The Carpet Crawlers” all these years later.)

I’ve come to think that double albums are a bit much, but the length of this one certainly made sense in context with all other endless quasi-symphonic prog albums that I was into at the time like Yes’s *Tales from Topographic Oceans* and Aphrodite’s Child’s *666*. This one seems a little angrier, weirder, and less noodly than what I remember about some of those other expansive projects, so it’s interesting to keep that in mind while remembering the radical shift in “rock” music that was about to take place in the late 70s. (OK, maybe it’s not weirder than *666*.)

Of course, many of the lyrics seemed like a hot dumb mess even back in 1974. (I can see the rest of the band being like "So Peter, just so we’re on the right page, this track is about a raven absconding with someone's amputated penis, yeah?”) But hey, it was the 70s.

4 stars

If you get a chance to see The Musical Box perform the original tour set of this I recommend it. I was a bit sceptical when I agreed to go with a friend because it was the one Gabriel era Genesis album I never really got into. It was entertainingly silly and bonkers with all the Gabriel costumes and the triple screen slide show more complete than Genesis themselves ever managed. The original used mechanical slide projectors which were always breaking down. Much easier to do digitally of course. Anyway, it belatedly turned me into a fan of this over wrought over stuffed monster.

It feels very typical of the book to go for the big statement properly long double concept album as a Genesis pick rather than Foxtrot which for me in Supper's Ready has the pinnacle of that brand of whimsical showing off English prog. As I'm not a fan I'm happy enough that there are no Phil Collins era Genesis albums or indeed any of his solo stuff, but all that stuff was massively popular all over the world, and the big gated drums on Face Value are inarguably influential.

Great concept album stuff in the vein of Tommy. Not quite as good as the British Male Name Released in 1969 duo, but still good :)

Some really pretty sounds, but I guess this isn’t the time yet for me and prog rock. It is waaay too long for me.

Buen album aunque ña litad de las canciones son buenas y la otra mitad flojas o hasta olvidables, un álbum que tal vez no volvería a escuchar completo pero si algunas canciones sueltas por ahi, disfrutarlo con columen medio a alto y mas en un atardecer o anochecer

A tough album to judge. Sometimes great with driving energy and cool riffs. But often undercut by moments so silly it's like the album doesn't want you to take it seriously. Ultimately the final product is bloated, messy and you have to really dig to get the great stuff

Prog rock is perhaps my favorite subgenre that I've discovered because of this project so far.

Es ist ein wilder, überbordender Brocken – ehrgeizig, surreal, manchmal fast zu viel auf einmal. Doch nach dem ersten Drittel zieht das Album spürbar an: die Songs werden fokussierter, melodischer, die Dramaturgie klarer.

„In the Cage“ markiert den Wendepunkt, ab dem die Platte ihre ganze Kraft entfaltet – dichter, spannender, emotionaler. Die zweite Hälfte wirkt wie ein Rausch aus Prog‑Eleganz und erzählerischer Wucht.

In the broad scheme of prog albums I've listened to over the years, this was ok. I feel like the "concept" is kinda just thrown together in a way that is less of a story and more just a random train of thought. Though I gotta say the raven/castration part was pretty wild. 3/5

Most of this is honestly great, but it's way, way too long.

This is one of those albums that it clearly took a great deal of talent, skill and creativity to make. I just didn’t enjoy it. I always feel badly about giving a low rating to this kind of album. Apologies to most jazz and prog rock musicians. I just don’t vibe with you. Respect though! 2.5 for this one but I will probably round down. Genesis has enough fans to not worry about my score.

2.5/5. Saw a prog concept album with a few credits to Brian Eno and got pretty excited for this one. Sadly it never really clicked for me. The narrative is fine but never really hooked me (though it is better than most rock opera narratives, which tend to be awful.) musically it is all very well played but I still didn’t get a ton out of it personally.