THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

While a lot of people call this album Genesis best and greatest masterpiece, I just don't really get this album. To me this is a bit of a disappointment after having 3 great masterpieces previously. This is one of the biggest reasons why I'm not a big fan of concept albums like this and The Wall by Pink Floyd, the plot can just get overblown, confusion or daft and this fits this album perfectly.

This is a big problem when the album heavily relies on you to follow the storyline to get the best enjoyment from the songs, but the plot can get so confusing that if it wasn't for the fact that I did some Internet research about the album, I would be absolutely confused (in fact I don't own the album, but listen to the songs on Youtube, meaning that I don't have the booklet that gives you information on the story, but since of the WMG problem going on that site, Youtube is not a very good and reliable source.)

Music wise, the first half of the album is really good, with the title track, 'Cuckoo Cocoon', 'Carpet Crawlers', 'In The Cage' and 'Grand Parade' really standing up with other great Genesis tracks. But the second half really lets itself down. To me it seems the band was desperately trying to think up ideas to fill in the second half. It is known that the band did not like Gabriel hogging the writing to fit his own ideas and needs. It's like sometimes you can feel that the rest of the band are not enjoying themselves recording the album. This and with live performances that had Gabriel hogging the spot light with his over the top costumes (making the band angry that people were not giving the music credit) cause friction which made Gabriel leave the band.

In the end I give the last Gabriel era Genesis album 3 stars, to be honest I think (which will defiantly cause controversy over Gabriel fanatics) ...And Then There Were Three...' and 'Duke' were better albums. But still on its own it's not a bad album with a couple of excellent songs.