SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Can you tell me where my country lies? With this intriguing question sung acapella, Peter Gabriel opened this other Genesis masterpiece at his peak, both vocally and lyrically. Selling England by the Pound might not have been as flashy as Foxtrot, and was not as groundbreaking as Nursery Cryme, but it was the perfect balance.

Overall the most gifted band of their era, especially for their unmatchable composition skills which enabled them to create songs that were all complex, melodical and emotional, Genesis probably reached its top with Selling England by the Pound, and I say this even though my favourite songs from them would probably be on their previous, aforementioned albums. Selling England by the Pound simply was an even more complete, entirely coherent work as a whole - a melodical celebration of symphonic prog rock flowing seamlessly for the entire running time.

As I pointed above, to me Peter Gabriel was at his peak on this album. His vocals are right on all the way, whereas he had a tendency to overdo them from time to time before this. And lyrically, Selling England by the Pound was just superb. Politically and socially engaged as it is mostly a reflexion on 1970's Britain, and yet very subtle, mixing medieval, Renaissance and more modern themes. I am not aware of any other band coming even close to such finesse during their time.

Among the 70's Genesis classic albums, this is perhaps the one which took the longest to grow with me. I have been a long time thinking that this was their weakest effort, but it turned out that it was my own effort which was too weak. Never give up on this album if you are still uncertain of what to think of it - a revelation is waiting around the corner for you.

At the moment this review was written, this album was unexplicably ranked #3 behind Pink Floyd's Wish you Were Here and Yes' Close to the Edge. In my view, the former is nowhere near as progressive or complete as Selling England by the Pound, while the latter is so many steps behind with regard to lyrical and melodical achievement...

Anyway. No need to explain that you do not have a progressive rock collection if you do not own this album. This is the essential among the essentials.

Share this GENESIS review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to SentimentalMercenary
• Report this review (#242952)
• Buy GENESIS music online with PA partners
• Show all GENESIS MP3/Stream
• Go to GENESIS page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Selling England by the Pound page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for GENESIS related discussions