SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Selling england is possibly the greatest album of all time. Nigh-on flawless from beginning to end, it also has the virtue of being simply longer than a lot of its 70's contenders (15 minutes longer than Close to the edge), which means that there is more to enjoy. The album contains so many references to English and British culture that the american release came with a booklet explaining them. The longer compositions are seperated from one another by the shorter numbers, which allows the listener time to catch breath, because the longer pieces are among the best in prog. Dancing with the moonlit knight automatically establishes the tone of the record, at turns agressive, lyrical, pastoral, and ambient. Firth of fifth is one of the great, classic ternary pieces of prog, emotively powerful and beautiful. The battle of Epping Forest is NOT overlong, as it needs a reasonable amount of time on the main section in order to give the middle 'reverend' section space to breathe. The cinema show is perhaps the best mid-length composition in all of prog, partly inspired by 'the Fire sermon' of The Waste Land, moving from the opening acoustic section through to the middle 'Teiresias' section, and then on to the instrumental, which is actually one long cadence through to a modulation into the original theme from Dancing with the moonlight knight. The process by which this is achieved is one of the most technically impressive in the genre. Overall, this is perhaps the best album of modern music you can hear.