Whee, this is one mightily frigged out record. My guess is that Peter Gabriel thought people were still taking him less seriously than necessary, due to all the fox dresses, willow farms and Harold the Barrels. So, one thing he hadn't still come up with was an extended, pretentious rock opera. As you might have guessed, this is a double album - a double-length rock opera. But ohmigosh, what a rock opera this is. Apparently, after a lot of squibbling one comes to the conclusion that it does have a plot: it's based on the lifestory and hallucinogenous experiences of a Puerto Rican tramp called Rael, in order to impersonate whom Gabriel even sacrificed his long hair and trippy stage costumes (some of them, of course - over the duration of the live Lamb show Peter still used to change quite a few outfits, including some gigantic monstruous "pods" and other different stuff; but normally, he just put on a ripped T-shirt and that was it). However, not even a supertalented scientist, heck, not even a 'supernatural anaesthesist' can decipher what the hell is really going on, be it in reality or in Rael's stoned mind.
This time Gabriel apparently didn't leave any modesty in his lyrics. You'll find everything here, it's like a 'Genesis encyclopaedia': tramps, anaesthesists, hairless hearts, deep caverns and imaginary (and real) cages, colonies of slippermen, obscure Greek mythology outtakes, quotes from hundreds of poets, writers and composers, and, of course, all of the band's clever and not-so-clever musical tricks. All of this makes for a really terrible first listening experience, you may believe me. Sitting through the entire album was originally a task worthy of a true Hercules. And even after repeated listenings, when one gets used to the music, lyrics and general atmosphere, there is still a nagging thought that pursues me - what's the meaning of this whole thing. Taken individually, the imagery of certain of these songs is working quite all right; but as a whole, the album is just one gigantic question mark. What's the sense of Rael pursued by a black cloud over Broadway, waking up in a cage, meeting the "carpet crawlers" and the Slippermen? What's the sense of him being castrated, and why insert all that scene where his brother John is falling over imaginary rapids and Rael chases after him in order to save him? What's the "It" that concludes the album? Don't even try to answer. It's a put-on. If it weren't for the form in which Gabriel and Co. dresses all that putrid stuffing, I'd probably leave my former rating of six as it was. Fortunately, on a pure musical level it certainly deserves better - after all, it's no worse than The Wall.
The main point and accent of the imagery has certainly changed (in fact, the album might be considered an all-out Americano anti-reaction to the purely British Selling England), but the band's sound is still for the most part the same, although they are slowly moving into the dubious "post-Gabriel progressive" territory, with Banksynths now playing a more prominent role (the main synth riff of 'It', for instance, while good in itself, almost coincides with the one used on 'Robbery, Assault And Battery' two years later). The sound is also quite energetic, roarin' and tearin', but... it doesn't always work.
Now look here, I'll be the first to admit that the album does feature a lot of interesting and sometimes even thrilling ideas (I'll be listing the best of these in a moment), but there's really too much filler. Sometimes a song starts out just fine and turns into a banal screamfest or into a particularly nasty Banksynth fiesta soon after. Like 'In A Cage', for example, the first verse of which is wonderful and the rest of which is... well, decent, although I used to hate it, but still, it's just a normal rocker, that never lives up to the glorious introduction ('I got sunshine in my stomach/Like I just rocked my baby to sleep...').
Among the best stuff on here I'd certainly have to point out the title track which is a golden classic and deservedly so. It really starts the album on a high note, with, once again, Gabriel's vocal performance (and Tony's tinkling piano - dump those synths, Tony!) making it stand out. And, like you know, the first disc is not really bad at all. Once again, I draw on comparisons with The Wall: Disc 1 is near-amazing, fresh, exciting, full of good melodies and rich with subtle, "light" atmosphere, but it's on Disc 2 where hell's bells finally strike and you have to hack through its jungles with a battleaxe.
Indeed. 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'? Roaring and tearing, kicks the album off with an energy never matched afterwards. 'Fly On A Windshield'? Excellent atmospherics (gives a great feel of the black cloud slowly and rhythmically advancing on Rael), until suddenly the drums kick in and Tony and Steve play up a thunderstorm while Phil pounds like a mule. 'Cuckoo Cocoon'? Silly, refreshing "nursery" interlude. 'In The Cage'? See above. 'The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging'? Incredibly catchy chorus. 'Hairless Heart'? Beautiful, beautiful instrumental, one of the most emotional, climactic melodies on here. 'Counting Out Time'? Ah, there's a real masterpiece - in between all these heavy progressive epics is etched a jovial pop number, devoted to Rael's memories of his early days, reading sex manuals before his first date and finding out all the 'hot spots' on pages so-and-so. Unfortunately, the manual lets him down in the end. (Here's another argument in favour of my hypothesis about Pete's deep sexual complexes, but I guess everybody already knows about that). 'Carpet Crawlers'? Another beautiful ballad, quiet, melancholic and with a philosophy of its own, not to mention the timeless Gabriel falsetto on 'you gotta get in... to get OOOOO-UUT!' 'The Chamber Of 32 Doors'? How could one forget the immortal lines about 'I'd better trust a man who works with his hands...'.
In the end I only left out 'Back In New York City' which is kinda ugly. But when it comes to Disc 2, I humbly lower my hands and turn off my head. BITS, yes, BITS and PIECES of songs on there are enjoyable, but in general it's just too plot-heavy and Gabriel is too busy proving his being well-educated and well-read for it to be consistently enjoyable. I don't want to say that these melodies really suck, but they really go overboard with their complexity, not to mention that musically, you get all the most necessary ideas on Disc 1, while Disc 2 just keeps repeating and recycling the same stylistics over and over until you're just sick. Besides, it features such minuses as 'The Waiting Room' - a load of stupid atonal noises that never trigger any nerve. The only three songs on that disc that I enjoy in their entirety are 'The Colony Of Slippermen' (more because of its intriguing theatricality than anything else), 'The Light Dies Down On Broadway' (because it's a reprise of the title track, as you understand) and the closing 'It'.
That said, I still raise my former rating to an eight (well, I promised it would almost definitely grow), because... well, because this is still a unique and highly intriguing album. I like the general style, too, although my main complaint is that I can hardly hear Mr Hackett at all: he was put very much in the background by Tony, and it becomes very noticeable if you put Lamb on immediately after Selling England. Poor Steve. Nevertheless, like I said, Tony rarely goes overboard with his synth stylings on here, and there's still quite a lot of piano and different instrumentation to spice up the pie. And out of all double-length progressive albums, Lamb after all these years still turns out to be the most accessible.
Of course, as everybody knows, right after the tour Peter quit Genesis, never to rejoin again except for a single charity concert; as he himself explained it, he was far too afraid to get trapped in a band whose popularity was steadily on the rise and become just your average artificial rock star. Well, supposedly he should have stayed around until 1981 or so - because Genesis didn't actually become a mass audience icon until the early Eighties. But to each his own ways, and after all, Peter's solo career easily beat out Genesis' together career.
