Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (2-LP Vinyl) Vinyl Record

Review

After a few rescheduled release dates, the long-anticipated 50th anniversary edition of this Genesis masterwork is here. With its original mix restored, and remastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell from the original tapes, it is, by any argument, the best the iconic album ever has sounded in the digital format. Additionally, in the super deluxe pack, is a freshly remastered, two-CD, full concert from the archive- a Los Angeles show in 1975 featuring the album in its entirety and a previously unreleased encore- as well as a Blu-Ray disc with a Dolby Atmos mix, a 60-page book, replica tour program, ticket, and poster.

Forgoing outtakes, demos, and alternates, Genesis, instead, puts forward the album properly, as a stand-alone, and with no distraction, in all its polarizing glory. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway would be the swan song for band founder and frontman, Peter Gabriel, and is a sprawling, sometimes labyrinthine, and now-legendary, double-album peak of progressive rock. Its narrative, studied and speculated, isn’t at all obvious, but is undeniably bifurcated. For every dark and dank corner, there is light. For every trial in the bowels of the metropolis, there is a signpost to the heavens (or, at least, the footlights of Broadway), with New York City as an absorbing and dispassionate centerpiece.

Disc One is a pinnacle of both Gabriel’s storytelling and the prowess of Genesis as an ensemble, with the title track, “In the Cage,” and “The Carpet Crawlers,” among the finer examples. Disc Two serves up more deliberate atmospherics than the opening slab, as the waters turn murkier on Rael, our protagonist. So, after 90 minutes of tale and turmoil, when the resolution of “It” arrives, at last- with its winking concession to the Rolling Stones’ ode to rock-and-roll, no less- the relief it provides ranks it among the great finales of all time. It’s not unlike the relief this super deluxe edition, as a whole, provides Genesis fans. Previous issues of the record have included a notorious, post-production hum, a hotly-debated remix, and never an agreed upon definitive version. This one, given all the attention, time, and effort to present it thoughtfully, is it.

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— Larson Sutton, jambands.com

Product Details

Double vinyl LP pressing. Peter Gabriel wanted to make a movie out of the rock opera that is The Lamb Dies Down on Broadway. That never happened, but thank God this 1974 double-LP did; this Gabriel-era Genesis masterpiece just missed the Top 40 but remains a magnificent achievement, marrying hypnotic instrumentals with hook-infused rockers: the classic title track, "In the Cage," "Back in N.Y.C.," "The Carpet Crawlers," "Lilywhite Lilith," "Riding the Scree" and more! The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the sixth studio album by Genesis and their last album recorded with Peter Gabriel as their lead singer before his departure from the group in 1975.