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Genesis - Selling England by the Pound CD (album) cover

SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Genesis

 

Symphonic Prog

4.65 | 4656 ratings

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kenethlevine
Special Collaborator
Prog-Folk Team
4 stars While Genesis' earlier albums showed flashes of brilliance - "Watcher of the Skies", "Musical Box" - amidst the flights of twee fancy, "Selling England By the Pound" largely dispensed with the airiness and mediocre production. This resulted in a balanced and captivating effort with several undisputed classics and only one glaring clunker.

The perennials are the brilliant "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", a showcase for Gabriel, Banks and Hackett in equal proportion; the majestic "Firth of Fifth" with its blueprint guitar solo; and the fanciful but intensely melodic "Cinema Show/Aisle of Plenty", with one of the warmest synth solos committed to posterity. Add in the pleasant ditty "I Know What I Like" and the baroquely beautiful "After the Ordeal" and you have all the trappings of a classic.

The remaining two tracks are the innocuous and lightweight "More Fool Me", which would by itself not spoil a 5 star performance, and the loquacious "Battle of Epping Forest", that is too long and atrocious to be simply ignored. As a result, this one gets docked a full star, still essential but not nearly perfect, due to about 16 ounces of gristle.

kenethlevine | 4/5 |

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