THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

One way that this album really succeeds is the way the emotion (and there's a myriad of emotions that it portrays) is always in line with the instrumentation (one could argue that Van Der Graaf Generator succeeds in quite the opposite way: their emotion often directly opposes it, but that's the schizophrenic feeling they're trying to portray). The tranquility of "Cuckoo Cucoon" blends into the harsh torture of "In the Cage." This is not the only time when two successive songs form an emotional contrast. In "Back in NYC" and "Hairless Heart," we see behind Rael's tough (as Gabriel's vocals make clear) persona a more sensitive, lonely side (this isn't the only time this theme has appeared in a Genesis album, see also "Squonk" on A Trick of the Tail). We see the silly, bumbling naiveté of "Counting Out Time." The delicate beauty of "The Lamia" is contrasted with the exotic and grotesque "Colony of Slippermen." Finally, there's the slowly-building triumph of "In the Rapids."

Another way this album really succeeds is in the subtlety. Unlike Yes, Genesis isn't as in-your-face about instrumental virtuosity and rely more on synergy. Take "The Colony of Slippermen": there's the seamless cycling between three very different themes. The extra beat they put into the keyboards in "A Visit to the Doktor" is carried over into the lyrics ("windscreen wiper" and "countdown timer tick"). Also notice the extra beat they put in after "one hell of a fright" (adding a sound appropriate to the lyric). You can find other examples in their songs, but "Colony" is where they are most apparent.

Let's take a moment to talk about the "filler" tracks on the second side. I think that there's something about "The Waiting Room" and "Ravine" that really "works," whereas "Silent Sorrows in Empty Boats" is a bit too repetitive for me. The instrumental section at the beginning of "Colony" actually does a great job of setting up the scene and is entirely consistent with the feeling they are trying to get.

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