SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Nice one. Overrated, but nice. Three stars, perhaps three and a half. No, I'm not following the general consensus that Selling England is an absolute masterpiece. It is overrated, but a good one at that. There are no less than four excellent songs here, let's call them Dancing, Firth, Ordeal and Cinema for convenience' sake, all of them classics of the genre, and a few "nice" ones. However, the album has a big weak spot, and it's very bad indeed. No, I'm not talking about the three minute song that Phil Collins got to sing. I don't have anything against that, except that it's only "OK". No, it's The Battle Of Epping Forest that I don't like. It's long and it's boring. Sure, it has some good moments, but mostly when Peter Gabriel keeps his mouth shut. There's some great keyboards for instance. But for a song that last almost 12 minutes, "some good moments" is not enough to save it. Peter Gabriel is doing silly voices again, and that would even bring down the best songs, let alone a lame one such as this. They could have left it off and still have a great record of a decent length. That would have earned it an extra star from me.