SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Me and this album go along way back while I'm still in High School. It's a period when I'm start listening to some of the songs by classic rock bands mainly from 70's. You name it : Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Doors, Eagles, Pink Floyd and many more by looking up the VH1 list titled 'Greatest Songs of All Time'. Go look them up on your favorite search engines if you're interested, it's my own memorable starting point for finding music while I'm still just spending my days watching MTV.

After listening to some jazz at middle school until that point I've developed some liking for music that kind of explores the usual musical ideas like playing in irregular time signatures, you name it...one popular example is a standard jazz song 'Take Five' playing in 5/4 which was covered by so many jazz musicians with their own style of improvisation. Letting only the main riff intact while they start disassembling the original and making their own musical interpretation~

Okay and so how is this related to me reviewing this album? Okay, let me explain about the musical style this legendary band has. Genesis combines the musical styles of Rock bands listed above with technical music like Jazz and Classical, forming another genre of it's own, Art Rock or Progressive Rock...in other words. Think about it at some Rock music with technical elements, it's hard to explain...just look up some of their music on Youtube.

I first came upon this band by listening to a CD of their MP3 collection, mainly starting up with their compilation albums. Later I tried my hands on listening this record, at the first listen I can't really get to it and I don't understand the music at all. My first impression is "What is this? The music is really strange! I've never heard anything like this before."

The next moment I found myself getting really addicted to the album for a reason I dunno myself, the music just starts appealing to me even more and more. And as for now, I could say it's a brilliant masterpiece of Rock music. Totally innovative and far beyond it's time, this is the music that will never gets old to me. The production quality is finest, the sound is crystal clear and deep...I hardly believe this is a record that came on the early 70's with this level of quality.

About the music itself, I should say that I really enjoy Peter Gabriel's vocals on this one along with Steve Hackett guitar plays and Mike Rutherford basslines that complement all the instruments perfectly, he's truly a monster at bass..just listen to the track "Los Endos" at the Wind and Wuthering album and you'll know what I mean.

Phil Collins also did a good job while performing the track "More Fool Me" it's a calm and relaxing song though at the same time it's really touching for the heart along with brilliant drumming throughout the album that impresses me until this day. Tony Banks also gave me a really rewarding experience while listening to his Keyboard and Synthesizer plays, one of the most memorable tracks featuring him are the opening piano sections on "Fifth and Firth" and the synth solo at "The Cinema Show".

The rest of the tracks like "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight", "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", and "Battle of Epping Forest" is highly dominated by Peter Gabriel with his damn excellent vocal sound with unique and strong character...really subtle and soft but at the same time he delivers a powerful singing that greatly impacts the feelings of every listeners. Steve Hackett shines in almost every song in this album with his masterful guitar plays, this maestro knows how to arrange unique melodies for his guitar work I was fully astonished by his level of creativity, his musical presence brightly shines on the track "After the Ordeal" which features his acoustic and electric guitar solo plays.

With such incredible line up and musicality, there's still an impressive addition of masterful songwriting in the lyrics. The album is totally solid as a whole, with musical arrangements that would appeal to many kinds people especially the fans of rock music. Please give this an album a listen while you have some time to spend, this album had completely changed my perspective about music and broadening my horizons when I listened to it like magic and I will be eternally grateful for that.