Selling England by the Pound
Atlantic / Wea - Atlantic / Wea
Genesis
Release date: 1994-10-04
Audio CD
Album Rock, England, Pop, Pop/Rock Music, Popular Music, Prog-Rock/Art Rock, Rock, Rock/Pop, United Kingdom
1. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
2. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
3. Firth of Fifth
4. More Fool Me
5. The Battle of Epping Forest
6. After the Ordeal
7. The Cinema Show
8. Aisle of Plenty
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Selling England by the Pound
Date undefinedThis is one of those albums where,just from the description of it I always really wanted to hear.So needless to say when I got it as part of the new Genesis 1970-1975 boxed set I was very excited. Sometimes albums that sound dynamite on paper fall flat to me when I hear them. But this is not one of them. 'Selling England By The Pound' was the strongest album Genesis made up to this point and made a great follow up to the also excellent Foxtrot.What really brings it to life is the strong sense of focus and continuity-the presense or lack of which can either make or break even classic prog-rock. The long songs such as "Firth Of Fifth","The Battle Of The Epping Forest" and "The Cinema Show" all showcase a wonderful cut-and-paste style of melding two songs together. The songs really really come together because Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins in particular not only compliment each other very well but Steve Hackett and Tony Banks,particularly in his very tasteful use of ARP synthesizers (they never sound too overbearing)have all meshed together in an extrodinary way. But still that isn't what makes this album so great-it's the incredible songwriting. "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" and "More Fool Me",the latter featuring the first lead vocal of Phil Collins on a Genesis album are gentle acoustic oriented songs with really great melodies-the former gets a bit more rockish towards the end of course but maintains the feel. The song that impressess me most on here is "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)"-a short,to the point rock song with both a great groove and a great melody and has a rather quircky dialog (apparently from Gabriel) at the beginning which really lightens up the song. It's not too noticable but the rhythmic grooves that show up on many of these songs would become a strong part of the later Phil Collins-led lineup.There's even a short instrumental "After The Ordeal" which is important so that people would understand the talent within Genesis didn't only come from Peter Gabriel.We all know now it certainly didn't anyway. The album ends with the brief "Aisle Of Plenty",kind of a vocal duet between Gabriel and Phil Collins whom,while a strong addition to the band hasn't really established his own vocal identity quite yet-here he more or less is imitating Gabriel.Either way you look at it this is one of those art/progressive rock albums that is singable and above all a lot of fun rather then just a bunch of people trying to be overly serious. And even though some members of Genesis had overly serious outlooks on their music they sure made this one welcoming to all who heard and still hear it.
Selling England by the Pound
Date undefinedAlong with "The Lamb lies down on Broadway" this is their best material and released the same year as my favorite Yes recording "Yessongs". Where has all the creativity gone ?
Selling England by the Pound
Date undefinedI admit, I never loved anything by Genesis as much as I loved INVISIBLE TOUCH, even though INVISIBLE TOUCH, I must admit to be honest, isn't a perfect CD either. I just love it 'cause it's been with me from way way back, just like my mother has been with me since way way back. It's hard to turn your back on something so deeply integrated in your past...but anyway; this CD IS pretty darn good. Like A TRICK OF THE TAIL 3 years later, this CD has a bit of a grainy-wheaty-bready feel, although the instrumentation feels more natural and organic, so it's not like "white-bread", which may taste more sweet-ish than wheat bread, just isn't as satsifying all around. This CD suffers a tad bit with consistency issues, like just about every Genesis CD I can think of, but not enough to really complain. "More Fool Me" is kinda weak, and I'm not sure why "Aisle of Plenty" was released in the first place...sometimes I could care less for "The Battle of Epping Forrest", which takes serious issues of gang-violence and makes them out to be some children's story or whatever...but it's a neat song when I'm awake enough to realize there's really no harm in doing that, just like The Simpsons isn't a bad TV show just b/c it takes adult themes and puts them in a cartoon, which, at one time was though of as a thing for children (and still is thought of that by some people...at least I sure as heck hope the majority of parents aren't letting their kids watch South Park, American Dad, Family Guy, The Simpsons and all those hentai productions etc.;...mankind will truly be nothing more than monkeys pushing buttons if the children don't grow up knowing the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, so on and so forth...and there's too much grotesque behavior in shows like South Park for any parent to guide their child with x child watching such a program...it's like putting V8 and cookies on a table and letting the child choose one, except worse, 'cause the child has the opportunity to do any number of things when two options are moving like thoughts do inside a brain...such as comine good and evil to make a compromise, or hop back and forth between the two, ignore half of what the parent is saying...etc. etc...am I reviewing a CD here...? Let's get back to that...).
Ok, this CD, to sum it up, is a pretty enjoyable CD. I for one prefer synthesizers and orchestral type stuff over guitars and drums, but that's not why I'm knocking a star off, really. Perhaps Genesis have some kind of brainy-logic for making the CD the way it is, but with two out of six songs not being worth it, I'd give it 4 stars, although the CD is 50+ minutes and the two not-so-good songs total only 5 or so minutes; prolly better make it 4.5 stars.
