THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

After the successful "Foxtrot" and "Selling England by the Pound", Peter Gabriel found it difficult to agree with the band members on the musical direction they should follow, given that his leadership was increasing, and that Genesis was holding his shoe tighter than he was willing to accept. The result of that definitive moment, with creative control ceded to Gabriel to structure the work as he defined, was "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"

There is no doubt that the quality and value of many of its passages are part of the band's legendary history, such as the opening "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and its consistent keyboard, the hypnotic "Broadway Melody of 1974", the intricate and very progressive "In the Cage", "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" and its airs reminiscent of "Supers Ready", and the superlative and serene luminosity of "The Carpet Crawlers". That handful of songs is enough to consider it as a excellent album.

However, a few songs from the second part, such as the disconcerting instrumentals "The Waiting Room", "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats" and "Ravine", or the insipid "It", do not add much to the final result. In the realm of unverifiable speculation, perhaps a single more condensed album instead of two would have given "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" more robustness.

With Steve Hackett's guitars being very timid (except in a few episodes like the spacey "Cuckoo Cocoon"), and Tony Banks, on the contrary, very active and experimental with his keyboards throughout the album, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" , the story of the innocent and helpless young Puerto Rican Rael in the New York jungle, became the final chapter of Peter Gabriel's remarkable adventure in front of one of the greatest exponents of progressive rock of all time.

4 stars