Genesis - Selling England By The Pound (1973)

Lisnaholic · 02-04-2011, 10:23 AM

I can understand Dotoar`s enthusiasm for this album, because the musicians never put a foot wrong on the entire disc. As he says, the piano, the guitar are wonderful. The first three tracks are really powerful and seem to promise so much...

However in my opinion, with the Phil Collins and Epping Forest tracks the quality of the songwriting takes a dip from which the album never quite recovers. I share tore`s misgivings about Peter Gabriel`s contribution. In fact, I`d go further than he would probably care to because, despite PG`s supposed talents of story-telling, I never feel that he has any empathy with his characters at all. Typically, he invents someone, gives them a silly name or voice, makes a little joke about them and then moves on to his next victim. It`s a pretty juvenile approach to narrative which quickly becomes irritating. When he wrote Aisle of Plenty he wasn`t a Charterhouse schoolboy any longer, but you`d never guess that to judge from the lyrics.

So, when it comes to comparisons with that other well-known prog band, I agree with the posts above, that Jon Anderson and Close To The Edge are substantially better, and I`m just giving this album a vote of "Good".

To end on a positive note, I saw Genesis live at a time when Peter Gabriel was performing the entire concert in a fox`s head. It was a wonderfully strange, spooky bit of theater that absolutely captivated this young listener. Well done, PG, thanks for the memory !

View Poll Results: How would you rank the album on this scale?
Horrible!	0	0%
Bad	0	0%
Mediocre	0	0%
Good	3	8.33%
Very Good	12	33.33%
Brilliant!	21	58.33%
Voters: 36. You may not vote on this poll

02-04-2011, 10:23 AM	#7 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	I can understand Dotoar`s enthusiasm for this album, because the musicians never put a foot wrong on the entire disc. As he says, the piano, the guitar are wonderful. The first three tracks are really powerful and seem to promise so much... However in my opinion, with the Phil Collins and Epping Forest tracks the quality of the songwriting takes a dip from which the album never quite recovers. I share tore`s misgivings about Peter Gabriel`s contribution. In fact, I`d go further than he would probably care to because, despite PG`s supposed talents of story-telling, I never feel that he has any empathy with his characters at all. Typically, he invents someone, gives them a silly name or voice, makes a little joke about them and then moves on to his next victim. It`s a pretty juvenile approach to narrative which quickly becomes irritating. When he wrote Aisle of Plenty he wasn`t a Charterhouse schoolboy any longer, but you`d never guess that to judge from the lyrics. So, when it comes to comparisons with that other well-known prog band, I agree with the posts above, that Jon Anderson and Close To The Edge are substantially better, and I`m just giving this album a vote of "Good". To end on a positive note, I saw Genesis live at a time when Peter Gabriel was performing the entire concert in a fox`s head. It was a wonderfully strange, spooky bit of theater that absolutely captivated this young listener. Well done, PG, thanks for the memory !