SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Well, what do we have here... another 'Selling England By The Pound' review? As one of the highest rated albums on the site, I almost feel obliged to review the album and give my opinion on it.

I can safely say that yes, 'Selling England By The Pound' is a masterpiece, but not necessarily a perfect work. Tarnished only by a few bland moments, and a song that deters from the overall product, it is a powerful trip and a genre-defining album in prog music.

The album starts up with a very powerful and memorable track (and one of my favourite Genesis tracks) 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight' which starts out not with a bombastic progressive onslaught, but the acapella vocals of singer Peter Gabriel. While I've never been a huge fan of Peter Gabriel, his vocals really shine on this album, and his quirky inflections really compliment the witty lyrics.

Other highlights include 'The Battle Of Epping Forest' (the lyrical highlight of the album) and 'Fifth Of Firth' (which has one of the most beautful guitar solos I have ever heard.)

I don't have too many negative things to say about the album, but one song that did get on my nerves after a fairly short time was 'More Fool Me,' which I think really deters from the album's quality consistency. It's an unnecessary acoustic track, minus the chorus which is tolerable and pleasant.

Another thing that I found a bit distracting was the production of the album. At times it sounds a bit noisy and low-fidelity. I understand that this was the early 70's and the band wasn't exactly exposed to the highest quality equipment, but on another masterpiece of theirs 'Foxtrot' (that in fact, came before this one) the sound quality is much better. It doesn't really hurt the compositional integrity of the albums, but it still robs the album of being 'perfect' in my eye.

Overall, 'Selling England By The Pound' is something every progressive music fan should listen to and own. A true essential, and one of the highlights of Genesis' career.

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