Genesis
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

*NOTE: On side 1, there is a mark that plays 20 times at a moderate to loud level at the end of track 4, "Cuckoo Cocoon." This same mark plays 10 times lightly at the start of track 5, "In the Cage." On side 2, there is another mark that plays 5 times lightly at the end of track 2, "Hairless Heart." On side 3, there is a mark that plays 6 times at a light to moderate level at the start of track 3, "Anyway." There is also a mark that plays 15 times at a moderate level at the end of track 4, "The Supernatural Anaesthetist." This same mark plays 8 times at a moderate to loud level at the start of track 5, "The Lamia."

*NOTE: Side 2 of these records was not noisy enough to rate our M-- to EX++ grade, but it's not quite up to our standards for Mint Minus Minus either. If you're looking for quiet vinyl, this is probably not the best copy for you.

Amazing sound on all four sides! This album -- and Genesis in general -- can be difficult to find good sound for. Most copies struggle -- or make you struggle -- to get the sense of the material and what the band is trying to accomplish, but when you find killer pressings such as these two, the complexity and theatricality of the music really works.

Bigger and more present, richer and fuller, with more space and transparency, this copy is doing everything we want the album to do.

Certain tracks -- particular the more rocking, guitar-heavy material -- are often going to get a little hard in the midrange, but on a good copy the issue is much less apparent and doesn't get in the way of the music. And the more open, spacious keyboard-based and acoustically driven songs which comprise the bulk of the album can sound really wonderful.

Latest Finding

We came across an original British pressing, Porky/Pecko and everything, that was a major letdown sonically. Yes, folks, some pressing that are supposed to be good just aren't. You got to play them to know which is which, and that's where we come in.

We never assume anything about a record. We play it and find out for a fact how good it sounds. Any other approach will be too error prone to be of any real use, assuming you set high standards for the sound of your records.

What The Best Sides Of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear

• The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
• The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1974
• Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
• Natural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre
• Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space

No doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. Playing these records is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find pressings that sound as good as these two do.

What We're Listening For On The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

• Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
• Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren't "back there" somewhere, lost in the mix. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.
• The Big Sound comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
• Then transient information -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
• Tight punchy bass -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
• Next: transparency -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
• Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.

Vinyl Condition

Mint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)

Those of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.

If you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.

Side One

• The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
• Fly on a Windshield
• Broadway Melody of 1974
• Cuckoo Cocoon
• In the Cage
• The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging

Side Two

• Back in N.Y.C.
• Hairless Heart
• Counting Out Time
• The Carpet Crawlers
• The Chamber of 32 Doors

Side Three

• Lilywhite Lilith
• The Waiting Room
• Anyway
• The Supernatural Anaesthetist
• The Lamia
• Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats

Side Four

• Colony of Slippermen: The Arrival/A Visit to the Doktor/Raven...
• Ravine
• The Light Dies Down on Broadway
• Riding the Scree
• In the Rapids

AMG 5 Star Rave Review

In retrospect, this first LP plays a bit more like the first Gabriel solo album than the final Genesis album, but there's also little question that the band helps form and shape this music (with Brian Eno adding extra coloring on occasion), while Genesis shines as a group on the impressionistic second half. In every way, it's a considerable, lasting achievement and it's little wonder that Peter Gabriel had to leave the band after this record: they had gone as far as they could go together, and could never top this extraordinary album.