SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

All the qualities that come to mark the 'progressive decade' of Genesis are present and correct, so to speak, on this disc.

My personal love affair with Genesis began with this album - the wintery English countryside that I live in was the perfect setting for the sound of two twelve-string guitars chiming away together. To this day the middle of the Cinema Show creates that picture again and again. That's the beauty of this music. It allows you the chance to build your own pictures.

'Dancing With a Moonlight Knight' conjures up a mystical, distant England. The opening a capella vocal sounds almost medieval. . The lyrical references are straight out of early 70's popular culture, The Wimpy Hamburger, Green Shield stamps et al, however set against the music it doesn't date, and what is intended as social commentary becomes a whimsical journey - and whether or not you identify with the archaic cultural references or not, it's equally effective. Peter Gabriel effectively future-proofed his lyrics. And set in the context of the album with the Lear-esqe 'I Know What I Like', it can come to mean anything.

'The Battle Of Epping Forest', similarly, becomes almost like a Nursery Rhyme. The East-End gang wars long since having vacated memory of the general public, these peculiarly named characters that populate the song exist outside of the very thing that influenced them. That whimsical take on the then popular culture survives, long after the culture has ceased to be. Brilliant.

Musically, Selling England by the Pound is about the best thing that Genesis did. As a whole piece, and indeed, thought was given into making it play as a single piece, even though the songs aren't linked by anything other than the atmosphere that they create, it ebbs and flows in an entirely unique way. The brilliant ensemble playing at the conclusion of 'Moonlit Knight' may well be the most tricksy thing the band ever attempted. And the contrast between the sections are stark and jarring, and entirely satisfying.

'Firth Of Fifth', a hoary old favourite has all the melodrama of a classical masterwork, and the guitar solo may still be the highlight of Steve Hackett's career.

If you're reading this, and you've yet to hear this record, you're missing some of the most brilliant modern music that has been written. It captures an essence of time as well as existing outside of it, and I would be very surprised if this record is not still being written about and enjoyed another 40 years from now.

There is no other way of putting it. It is a masterpiece, and you simply have to hear it.

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