SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

I know that this is probably one of the albums with more reviews in this website....but since this is one of my all time favorites (a bit of a cliché...but I Know What I Like!) I have to review it.... I usually do a song by song review but I don't think it is necessary here.

This is not a "propper" concept album but it has coherence both musically and lyrically...The central theme is England and I think this is the ultimate british album... among the lyrical highlights we have Dancing With The Moonlight Knight, Firth of Fifth, The Battle of the Epping Forest (great narration here) and The Cinema Show (go Gabriel!).... musically almost the entire album is a highlight, being More Fool Me a low point...its not a bad song, it's actually a nice ballad and shows Phil Collins' vocal quality (who would have imagined what would happen later...)....

The musicians are as great as always: Hackett has never let me down (lets forget GTR), Banks is an absolute master of keyboards (lets forget later Genesis here too) and the piano intro for Firth of Fifth is a classic, Gabriel is at his best here with all of the characteristic dramatism and humor that we all love, the highly underrated Rutherford gives a very solid bass foundation to the music (he is one of the best prog bass players ever... neglecting post Hackett genesis) and finally Collins... this is the proof that he should be drumming not singing (he is one of the best drummers ever) when you have someone as Peter Gabriel in the band...well.... More Fool Me proves he is a good singer so he shouldn't waste this talent. Indeed, he is one of the best (with Chris Squire) backing vocalists in prog and Disney gave a good use to his voice (I used to love his soundtracks before I discovered Genesis and Peter Gabriel)... + In my opinion his vocal work with the band after Gabriel left on albums such as A Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering is nothing less than top notch.

There is nothing else to say.... an album in which More Fool Me (a very underrated ballad) can be considered a low point deserves no less than 5 stars... A timeless masterpiece...

PS: An absolute essential...specially for those new to prog rock and / or genesis

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