SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

I don't know if there's anything left to say about this one, but here goes. Selling England By the Pound has some of Genesis's best and worst moments. The best towers above the bad parts, but, the bad parts are still there. I'm talking about more fool me, and the boring Battle of Epping forest. Of course this is just my opinion, and there are plenty of people who like those two songs. For me though, they do nothing, and just bore me. More Fool Me, nothing happens, there's nothing to say about it. Epping, we have some good keys from Banks, but there's not enough melody to carry the song. Because of these two songs, for me, this great album loses one star down from the essential mark.

The good stuff on the other hand, is brilliant and easily essential. Of course people always talk about the lead in Firth of Fifth, and for good reason. The whole song is great, the structure and the motions it moves through are all perfect, and it comes out as my favorite on the album. Of course Dancing With the Moonlit Knight, and the Cinema Show are the other two greats. DWTMK, has one of the first finger tapping solos of all time, and it's a very good solo. What's left is good. I Know What I Like is simply a radio tune, enjoyable and passable. After the Ordeal is a beautiful instrumental, Genesis always new how to pull off instrumental segments. Aisle of Plenty is almost like a "Her Majesty" type of song, which ends the album in a very surreal feeling, and plays it's part mostly as the end of the Cinema Show.

Of course every prog collection needs this one, but it just feels like a four star album now that I have more to compare it to. However, when your getting into prog this is one of the first albums you gotta pick up.