SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

There are few rock albums I can honestly label as really good music, so to speak. For me, classical music is the ultimate, highest form of music, and genres like rock, metal or reggae, while still being pretty good, pale in comparison to beautiful classical music. That said, Selling England by the Pound is one of those few albums: it is, at the same time, so beautiful and so intelligent: basically, this record can almost be compared to a Wagner piece. The complexity, the lyrics, the arrangements, the composition, everything here is awesome.

Peter Gabriel was clearly one of the strongest members of the band at this point: his influence on the band totally revealed itself on the next record, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, which is almost a Peter Gabriel solo album rather than a Genesis album. On Selling England by the Pound his vocal performance is great, but, most of all, the lyrics he penned are all excellent. The concept of this album is the decay of Britain, with the loss of the old traditions: Dancing With the Moonlit Knight, the opener, speaks about the old pagan dances(with the Moonlit Knight, who seems to be a representative figure of the Gods the people of Britain believed in in the past). Musically, this song is the first highlight, opening slowly and then featuring some of the heaviest musical passages this prog rock group ever penned. The guitar melodies and riffs are, at times, incredibly catchy, and the drumming is obviously top notch.

Firth of Fifth and The Cinema Show are the two best songs though, two of the most beautiful progressive rock songs ever released. The first one opens with some amazing piano lines, leading us to the triumphant beginning with Gabriel singing the brilliant first vocal lines: The path is clear, though no eyes can see. The course laid down, loooong before!. This track is possibly the happiest one of the bunch, so to speak: ttriumphant is the best word to describe this marvellous song really, and it adds a lot of variety to the album, as the majority of the other tracks are a lot darker. The guitar solo, during the middle section, is the best solo I've ever heard in my life: pure emotion. Listen to it, please. The Cinema Show is excellent as well, one of the best love songs I've ever heard. The guitar solo is yet again awesome.

The other long song of Selling England by the Pound is The Battle of Epping Forest, and it is, in my opinion, the weakest of the long tracks, even though being quite epic at times. The track wouldn't sound out of place on The Lamb as it is strongly driven by the vocals and the lyrics. As I prefer much more instrumental passages, rather than songs dominated by the vocals, I don't enjoy the tune as much as the others, but oh well, it still is a pretty good track. I Know What I Like is a very catchy pop piece, yet still maintaining some progressive elements. I like it. After the Ordeal is a sweet instrumental, More Fool Me is yet another pop track, sung by Phil Collins, and Aisle of Plenty closes the album in the good ol' Thick as a Brick fashion, if you catch my drift.

As a whole, Selling England sounds even better. This is definitely one of my favourite albums ever and my favourite Genesis album, even though Nursery Crime is also unbelievably good and quite underrated.

Best Moments of the CD: -the guitar solo on Firth of Fifth.