SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

"Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" (9/10) From the opening gripper line that we all know so well, to the final culmination, this song keeps you gripped till the end. This is the band at their best: HACKETT experimenting with slide picking, BANKS as melodious as ever and PHIL and RUTHERFORD holding the rythm in the background. The middle of the song is definitely the highlght, as it culminates into a crescendo of guitar mellotron and organ only to descend back into tranquility towards the end.

" I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) " (6/10) Not a very serious song, it was definitely put there so that GABRIEL could voice his political opinions in the simplest way possible. It's a funny song, but that's about it. The sitar adds a nice touch, giving the song a (very limited) oriental feel. Simple drumming, simple melodies, mostly just a lyrical adventure.

"Firth of Fifth" (9.3/10) If it were up to me, I would rate this song the second best from GENESIS, very very close behind "Supper's Ready" (Apocalypse in 9/8 is why...). The song begins with a soft piano intro, progressively building and then suddenly ending, as GABRIEL enters. He sings for a while, and then the magic begins. There isan awesome crescendo starting with organ and mellotron then building and building until we get a full fledged orchestration experience for a couple of minutes. Then its HACKETT's turn as he enters with a lovely weeping melody on his guitar that leaves you with goosebumps. What a great song.

"More Fool Me" (2/10) This is just another filler, which really brings nothing to the album and is just overshadowed by the previous song. I usually skip it when I listen to the album, which I usually hate to do, but in this case, it is innevitable.

"the battle of Epping Forest" (7/10) Too long for the lack of melody and the overuse of vocals. After you later listen to cinema show you'll come to this song asking yourself if it's really worth listening to this song. It begins with an army drum roll then flows quite nicely into a vocal hurricane of GABRIEL experimenting with different tones, which is quite appreciable. But there aren't as many breaks as I would like to see: If you look at the sleeve, the lyrics for this song take up about a while page, so you can imagine theres very little room for musical explorations. Not bad, but not great.

"After The Ordeal " (8.5/10) This is the perfect follow-up from the previous song, as it is completely instrumental. The combination of piano and guitar is comparable to the most melodious songs of PFM or BANCO, flowing nicely until the percussive introduction, at which point the song basically becomes majestic. A good segway into the beautiful song which is to come.

"Cinema Show" (9.2/10) A masterpiece this one it: there is nothing wrong with this song, any way you look at it. The lyrics at the beginning are nice but the 6 minute instrumental that follows is the highlight. Amazing keyboard work from BANKS incorporating synths and organs in a marvelous medley of music beaty. There isn't really a point in describing the music here, because it cannot be put into words, it must be heard.

"Aisle Of Plenty " (4/10) A reprise of dancing with the moonlight knight, not really necessary, but enjoyable. Slightly dissapointing as an ending to this album, it would have been more intelligent to end with the previous track.

OVERALL: I'll give this album a generous 4.3/5 stars only because there are 4 highlights out of 7 tracks.

Enjoy your listen, its worth it

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