Selling England By The Pound is one of those albums that, although I enjoy it quite a bit, nothing about it reaches the heights of their prior releases in my mind. For me anyway, the quintessential 70's Genesis album has always been a tie between Trespass and Foxtrot: the former for it's dark grandeur and occasional eclectic nuance, the latter for it's melodies and arrangements. 'Firth Of Fifth' and 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight' are pretty swell though!
I guess the other thing that bothers me a bit is the sheer influence the record seems to hold over a lot of aspiring prog. rock musicians since the 70's - a great deal of the neo-prog. (the good stuff and the mediocre stuff alike) that appeared from the late 80's through the early 21st century was pretty much a carbon copy of what Genesis did here and, to an extent, on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. I guess it must have been easier to find people who can sing like a drunken Peter Gabriel than people with a relatively high range like Jon Anderson. :/
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