SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

One of the best albums in the classic Genesis-catalog, although a little bit overrated by many people. This isn't their best work and as an overall, the album isn't very balanced and they were forced to finish it faster than they wanted, so some songs never got the complete arrangement the members had in mind. The Battle Of Epping Forest is the best example of that.

Anyway, most of the individual tracks are very good. The first three songs are excellent. Moonlit Knight and Firth are high-quality sympho-prog with outstanding keyboard-work and vocals by Peter Gabriel. The following tracks More Fool Me (acoustic, and sung by Collins) and Epping Forest are weaker songs. As you may know, Epping Forest has some good drumming and lyrics, but could have been much better if the band had more time to record it. It should have been much shorter anyway, 11 minutes is way too long for a song like this.

Ordeal is a nice instrumental track, although the band have done better ones. It's melodic and Steve Hackett's guitar-playing does well. The Cinema Show is another 11-minute song. Better than Epping Forest and a great 7/8 part with nice synthesizer and mellotron-parts. Again, not the most stunning work of the band, but at least a classic track. The album closes with the haunting Plenty.

Although this is surely not the best work of Genesis (try Foxtrot and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway for a richer experience and more colourful Genesis) it surely is a classic album that contents some very good prog- songs. A good addition to any prog music collection and essential enough to grant it 4 stars!