SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Selling England By the Pound has Genesis at the height of their creative powers. The band takes their theatrical tendencies that had fully bloomed on Foxtrot's "Supper's Ready" and apply them more thoroughly on this album. Simply put, this is the best set of songs that Genesis had ever recorded.

One only has to look at "The Battle of Epping Forest" an amazing showcase for Gabriel's acrobatic vocal performance, the song thematically reminiscent of "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" on the Nursery Cryme album. While that track was bombastic and gleefully over-the-top, "Epping" takes a more sophisticated and refined approach.

The album's highlights, though, are its bookmark suites. The opener, "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight," is a logical successor to the aggressive "The Knife," filled with infectious melodies and an explosive electric guitar riff that marks the origins of the progressive metal movement. It's one of Genesis' best "heavy" moments, that's for sure. "The Cinema Show" is the song everyone remembers from this album, and for a good reason... It may have Peter Gabriel's best performance.

Look at this album conceptually and it represents a culmination of everything Genesis had been working towards at that time. All of the ideas that the band introduced in Trespass, Nursery Cryme, and Foxtrot are perfected on Selling England By the Pound. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway would follow, and while it matches this album in its greatest moments (and even surpasses them on one or two occasions), it's a sprawling affair and perhaps (if we are to be critical) overambitious. You won't find a better composed Genesis album than Selling England By the Pound... there isn't a single wasted note on it.

The best prog album of all time? Perhaps.