October 13, 1973 - Selling England By The Pound

8 days since my last release, and about a year after "Foxtrot", Genesis released their fifth album "Selling England By The Pound" on October 13, 1973. It's quite a long album for the time, with 4 of the 8 songs over 8 minutes, and clocking in at just under 54 minutes. The title was a response to the Americanisation of England and is a wonderful pun. After the success of "Foxtrot", Genesis felt more confident to try out more complex song arrangements on this album. Let's check it out!

Side one begins with "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" and Peter Gabriel sings slow, but well. We hear some quiet but cool guitar and great-sounding piano that carries the verse. Tony Banks plays a variety of great keyboards throughout the song, including some cool Mellotron and Phil Collins plays some quick, tight drums. Steve Hackett plays some nice guitar as well and it's his slow, high guitar that dominates the end, with trippy keyboards wandering. The next song is called "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)"as Gabriel talks at first, then sings pretty well. Keyboards are in the background as Mike Rutherford leads with a cool bass riff. Collins plays some great drums throughout the song and the chorus is dominated by keyboards. There's some flutes by Gabriel at the end as it fades out, and although it was a successful single, I wasn't overly impressed by it. Quite the contrary with track 3, "Firth Of Fifth which begins with an amazing piano solo by Banks. Wonderful, wonderful stuff! He switches to some slow organ as the verse begins and Gabriel sings beautifully. They play a slow jam with more solid drums from Collins before Banks, now on piano, takes it away for a new part with some great flute by Gabriel. Banks plays synthesizer now, and he does a fantastic solo! Sounds really good and he is playing some of his best stuff on this one! Hackett's turn now as we hear a sweet guitar solo that goes on for quite a while! One final epic verse to this fantastic 9 and a half minute song that ends as it started with some more cool piano by Banks. The side ends with "More Fool Me" which Collins sings lead on. His singing is soft but decent and accompanied by soft acoustic guitar by Hackett that sounds good. A love ballad is a little odd for Genesis, but it sounds nice.

Side two kicks off with "The Battle Of Epping Forest" with flute and marching drums starting off this near 12-minute song. The verse is led by some cool keyboards by Banks and Gabriel sings along quickly. The lyrics are about two gangs from London who would supposedly fight in Epping Forest. Banks plays a cool little synth solo and the guitar cues new riff, with cool keyboards backing as Gabriel sings. Hackett speeds it up to kick off a new part where Gabriel sings with a different accent. His portrayal of different characters with different voices sounds cool and the chorus appears again with more great keyboards that end up leading a new part. Gabriel sings in another voice now, and we hear some epic synths! Fantastic guitar by Hackett at the end as well, and Genesis have made another great progressive song. The next song is called "After The Ordeal" and Banks plays some fantastic piano throughout the song. Hackett plays some cool guitar as well and Gabriel joins in on flute at the end of this instrumental. The piano definitely steals the show though. Track 7 is another 11-minute song, "The Cinema Show". Hackett opens with some nice-sounding guitar and Gabriel sings well to fit the mood as Banks plays some trippy background keyboards. They start a new faster riff that sounds pretty good and it has lots of great keyboards, and some flute as well. Cool synths by Banks and some nice drumming by Collins kicks off a new riff and Banks plays computer-y synths as well as Mellotron,and it sounds awesome! A really great extended keyboards solo that goes on until almost the end of the song. The final song on the album is a short track titled "Aisle Of Plenty". It starts with Mellotron and Gabriel singing softly as acoustic guitar repeats a riff. There are many vocal tracks that make for a bit of a trippy ending to this record.

That is the end of "Selling England By The Pound" and I thought it was another really good album by Genesis. "Firth Of Fifth" is my favourite off this one, but there's lots of good music on this record, especially the excellent keyboards of Tony Banks. But how does it compare to their earlier albums? This is now the third album in a row with this current line-up and I think all three of them are in a class above "Trespass". But is it better than "Nursery Cryme"? This is a very close call in my mind, both albums have some great long progressive pieces, as well as shorter, softer songs. It's very tight, but I like "Nursery Cryme" a little better, leaving last year's "Foxtrot" as their top album. This newest effort being ranked 3rd just goes to show what great music this group is possible of and I look forward to hearing more in the future!