SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Well, this is the fourth Genesis album I have bought, behind Foxtrot, Trespass, and Nursery Cryme, respectively. It is good, and I think it is better than Nursery Cryme. But I don't think it's as good as it is often said to be. I like Foxtrot much more, and Trespass a little more as well. Both of those are perfect albums, while this has its weakspots.

So the album starts off with the best song on here, also one of Genesis's best. It features very mythical imagery ala Trespass. The main riff is also one of the greatest riffs ever from a song, both in its clean, acoustic form and in its heavy hard rocking format. This song is pretty much perfect, and when Gabriel shouts 'Knights of the Greenshield stamp and shout!' it signals a goosebump inducing riff from Steve Howe. The heaviest and best song on the album. Very awesome stuff all the way through. 10/10.

I Know what I like is one of the things that ruins the album for me. It has a really goofy sounding spoken word intro/outro, and a bearable verse melody, but the chorus melody literally makes me nauseous. Its very lurching kind of, with very strange rhythm, and its just sickly, in a bad way. A skip button worthy track. 3/10

Firth of Fifth is a great song, one of the best on here. It features an ELP/classical- esque intro, and some epic sounding vocals with some great synthing. Great nautical lyrics too. The flute, piano and synth solos are all great, but not nearly as good as the infamous guitar solo. Very spacy and long, but not boring, and very emotional. All in all, a very good song, but lacking the strength of the melody in Dancing... 9/10

More fool me is a boring song, you will be imaptiently waiting for it to end so you can continue with the album. or you could just skip it, as it is very bland and boring and offers little to no pleasure. Also, Phil Collins sings in his annoyingly fake high pitched voice. 2/10

The Battle of Epping Forest is god, but the worst long track on here. It features a cool military flute intro, and some great melodies, but it is hard to swallow and is so jam packed with stuff going on, you will miss most of it in the blink of an eye. It is probably longer lyrically than Supper's Ready. But anyway, it also features Gabriel's goofiest voices to date, and they are barely bearable sometimes. But for the most part the melodies are strong and the playing is good. 7/10

After the Ordeal is an instrumental, and it is good, very catchy riffs, but it may get kind of boring. It isn't nearly as boring as More Fool Me though, and it actually sounds good, its just... a little boring. 6.5/10

The Cinema Show is tied with Firth of Fifth for second best track on here. It features many progdefining moments, but sometimes I just don't find the melodies that appealing, but they are pretty good, and the sprawling keyboard solo is really good, many different moods. Listen to it on this site, if you don't like it at first, I didn't either, but it has grown on me a lot. Most people love it though, and I do too now. So its a good song, 9/10. It segues into the last track via that awesome main riff from the first track.

Aisle of Plenty is kind of a weird song, the lyrics are all about stuff in the English supermarkets. Very enjoyable though, as the meat of the 1:30 is taken up by the awesome riff from Dancing... Which always makes me laugh, because I always imagining Gabriel or someone saying, 'Well, mates, this riff is pretty awesome, we better stick in 3 of the tracks.' But it works very well and I like this song, even though it is very short. I'm not going to rate it though, because it just goes along with the Cinema Show, and I always listen to them together (whole album, actually.) Anyway long track review for the shortest track, eh? Anyway its good. I'm rambling now.

So anyway this is a very good album, IMO not as insanely good as people act like, mostly because of: I know what I like, More Fool Me, Parts of Battle of Epping Forest, and I also think After the Ordeal should have been put in another song with some vocals or something. I love instrumentals, don't get me wrong. But Gabe is what makes the band for me at least. So the highlights are Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, Firth of Fifth, and Cinema Show/Aisle of Plenty. But Battle... and After the Ordeal are also worth while tracks, so this is very good.

Rating: (not an average)- 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.