A slipper, man.
The second half of The Lamb Dies Down on Broadway shows Genesis (and really just Peter Gabriel) reaching a breaking point. Up to this point, the album has been scattershot but with enough high points that it generally feels well-constructed and engaging. Unfortunately, the scope of this project was too wide and it shows here, with more sequences of noodling, more random lyrics and arguably the absolute nadir of the entire Gabriel era (which we’ll come to presently).
But revisiting Lamb for this project has left me with the feeling that it is, at the very least, an effort. Unlike Yes and Pink Floyd, whose lesser albums were just as overly long and self serious, Genesis remains mercurial here, and there’s something interesting about that. You really do have no idea where the story is going to go, or what weird vocal effect Gabriel is going to use, or whether the entire track will suddenly switch to a completely different style. Songs that I remembered being tedious turned out to be quite layered once given a second look. I don’t know if I can really say if Lamb “rewards repeat listening” but it was a great, big epic swing that deserves some appreciation, even if it falls flat.
Anyway (nevermind, that’s track four), let’s finish this up.
W.A. Hughes 