That's some proper name dropping right there.

I definitely disagree that an album has to follow a story to be a concept album. I mean Commercial Album by The Residents is a concept album, as the songs are meant to imitate pop structures and be played 3 times to get a full sense of a pop song. It has a strong unifying concept to the way the music on the album is created, without telling a 'story'. A Concept album is more about musical ideas than story lines.

Speaking of The Residents, they probably my overall favourite concept record.



It's a damn masterpiece. Even Chula admitted to liking it.

High praise indeed.

It actually makes me slightly concerned that I enjoy the album so much.

You might be already dad inside without knowing it.

Whenever my dad joke game is going really strong, in the back of my mind I always wonder if maybe I pulled out too late with someone.

And exactly when was this?

August 13, 4:53:36 PM

Thanks for your invitation to comment on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway !

I’m very impressed with this album. Disc one sounds very busy; as if the band members are trying to outdo each other's compositional skills. Although concept albums on this grand ambitious scale are often dismissed as pretentious, Genesis avoid the pitfalls of self-indugence. I loved the synth section of In A Cage, not so sure about Carpet Crawlers though; is it good or irritating?

Predictably, I compared it with the Genesis I know, and I think it’s more complex but also better than Foxtrot and Selling England; Peter G sounds more committed and less patronising which helps make the album sound edgier. Perversly though, if I miss anything from the earlier Genesis, it’s those softer rural/nostalgic/patriotic touches which perhaps annoy non-English listeners. Anyway, I can’t really complain about that on an album about a Puerto Rican in NY. (To date, I’ve just played the album a few times on YouTube; I can’t identify all the tracks individually and haven't yet made it to side four - so if anyone can PM me with something more convenient to listen to, I'd be really grateful. ;))

So, thanks, TH and Chula; I'm very happy to have been prompted into listening to this album. What do you think of it yourselves? Have you tried working out the storyline or is that a waste of time?