SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND

Wow... This is perhaps the album that realy got me into prog. After listening to this album a few times on the car with my parents (who bought the CD) And listening to a few of Queen's older stuff, a switch in my head was activated and I was able to listen to songs who musically offer a lot. That really changed my life.

Anyway, for the review...

Dancing with the moonlit knight (5/5): One of the most memorable tracks of Genesis, I'd have to say. The perfect prog song length in my opinon (7-10 Mins). Long enough to show enough different musical ideas and revisit them, without overdoing it. Epic lyrics, Really superb guitar work, song structure, basiclly anything about this is perfect, maybe the outro of the song is a bit too long, but that realy doesn't matter.

I Know What I Like (4/5): Sort of a hit song, yet it offers a very unique sound. Haven't heard anything like that. Very accessible, yet still interesting. I'd like to give the song 5/5 but musically it doesn't offer that much.. Very fun track, though not perfect, deffinetly not a filler.

Firth of Fifth(6/5): Yep, 6. One of the best prog rock songs of all time. In my opinion, the best. The beautiful piano intro, the sudden transition to the verse was done perfectly, and felt very natural. The lyrics are amazing, and are very powerful. Excites me every time, not to mention witnessing it being performed live. The flute melody, later beautifully revisited and reinterpreted guitar solo are one of the most pleaseny, yet unique melodies out there. And the Synth part playing the piano intro, with the whole band this time is realy bombastic, slightly reminding Progressive metal. All in all, a real gem of Progressive music.

The Battle of Epping Forest (5/5): Starts with a beautiful flute-drums intro, reseambeling march music, the song cuts off to a very energetic part. Cool synth and drum lines are present. Perfectly placed guitar touches. Peter Gabriel's unique voice is the only one that can realy nail this song at this level. The rhythm of each part is Great. A great use of different odd time signatures throughout the entire song. This song has alot of different sections on it. Ill just sum up by saying each of them is fantastic and unique, and the short instrumental parts are also amazing. Big emphasis on the song's Rhythm.

After The Ordeal (5/5): In this song, the guitar is really prominent, the touches of the other instruments in here such as the drums and the flute are well placed, are very important, and should NOT be neglected. However, I will focus on the guitar playing in the song. The song is really divided into 2 parts, the first, sounding like some neo-classical music. Very impressive guitar playing. Really unique. Yet again, I don't think I ever heard another prog rock reseambeling this masterpiece. The second part of the song is a slow and beautiful electric guitar melody. Later, Harmonized gutiars enter, and wer'e at the hauntingly beautiful outro.

The Cinema Show (4.5/5): Yet another Great track. I won't go through the entire song, because it's a long one with many sections, I'll just say that yet again, all of the sections are really great, the song flows very well, and keeps us interested till the end. Great playing, etc... However, I have to say, this song, compared to the others has some inferior melodies. Though it is perfectly constructed. and still has a few good melodies, some of them fell a little weak. Still a very good track

Aisle of Plenty: I won't really review this track. It's basically one and a half minute of the same music in Dancing With the Moonlit Knight, just with different lyrics. It's a great way to finish the album, but it's not much of a song, but more like a closing track.

All in all, almost 5 stars (I'd say it comes to about 4.8). It really doens't get any better then this. If you're just getting into prog, or trying to get someone else into it. This is probably the right album. Relatively accesible to a prog album, and still gives us 100% uncompromising musical awesomeness.