Selling England by the Pound

 

Selling England by the Pound was released in 1973.

Track Listing:

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

Genre: Progressive Rock

And here we have it, the peak of Genesis's prog rock era.  Yes I know The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is next.  I said what I said.

This one feels like a natural progression of Foxtrot/Nursery Cryme.  They've kept a lot of the heaviness from Foxtrot and interspersed some of the stupid shit whimsy from Nursery Cryme.  The start of I Know What I Like and the middle of Thr Battle of Epping Forest are great examples of that.

Unfortunately, their penchant for nap time music is still there.  Parts of I Know What I Like and the entirety of More Fool To Me are just boring.  I'm glad they keep Gabriel in the forefront, that helps a bit, but they still bring the flow of the album down.  It IS the last track on side A, so probably less of a big deal in the pre-streaming days.

Im glad they split After the Ordeal from Battle.  It could have been just the end of the song but I would have been annoyed at it ending on such a down note.  They're better apart. 

The Cinema Show is probably the best song here (or maybe Moonlit Knight).  That end solo is excellent.  I also really like how they tie it all together in Aisle of Plenty.  Great end to a great album.

So with 3 green and 1 red (I can't call Battle green, the middle annoyed me too much), I think this is as good as Foxtrot.  Some of the things I hate about Lamb start showing up more here (Gabriel being annoying) but overall its excellent.

4.5/5