THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

I have listened to this album over and over, and while I think it is indeed mostly a very good collection of songs (especially 'In the Cage, my favourite), think the story arc is extremely shaky in places, and in the places where it does work, the music tends to take a back seat and suffers as a result (although the track 'The Waiting Room', with no lyrics, is awful). And yes, Disc 1 (or sides 1 and 2 of the vynl double album) is much better than Disc 2 (sides 3 and 4), IMO. Its' a widely reported fact that the music and the lyrics were written seperatly, and unfortunatly the album (as a whole) reflects this. Some tracks (the title track, carpet crawlers, in the cage, the chamber of 32 doors) work well because this division is almost unnoticeable, but other tracks where emphasis is put on the lyrics, such as the Lamia, the two seem detached, almost as though the Gabriel was improvising lyrics over the top of some music that he had found. This album may be highly regarded by a lot of people, and maybe they have realised something about the album that i haven't, But i prefer to listen to this album as a collection of songs, some good, some bad, and some that link together,(but never in more than pairs or triplets) and largly ignore the unifying concept, which is actually quite worryingly easy. But in this album the music, for me, overshadows the lyrics in many places, and some of the tracks seem to build up a good sound before some ridiculous lyrics ruin it. So, im summary, i suppose i could say that i don't 'get it', and perhaps that is my problem, but personally i think that many other people also don't 'get it', and that i'm not alone. Above average, but they probably shouldn't have done a double album.

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