GENESIS “SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND” ON SPECIALTY

GENESIS “SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND” (U.S. SPECIALTY) 1980 Jacket  VG+ with mild surface wear, corner/edge creases, strong readable spine, no splits. Original Atlantic inner sleeve included. DISC VG+ with some paper scuffs and lite scratches. This is the album where everything comes together. Genesis no longer feels like a bunch of talented kids experimenting and finding their feet, but instead a cohesive whole. Peter Gabriel feels more and more free to go in the direction he did with “Get ‘Em Out by Friday” and bring the different characters alive, not just in costumes on stage, but in his vocals on record as well. As for the band, most of the playing on here sounds timeless. I would say it’s much more engaging for the modern listener than most prog bands from the same time.

“Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” combines English folk elements with some elements that harken back to the “The Knife” to make an allegorical statement about early ’70s Britain, following it with the playful “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”. There are less story songs on here, the band straying into more normal song territory, but “The Battle of Epping Forest”, about a local gang war, is one of their best.

Much of the sound that would be on their first two post-Gabriel albums is present here, making the album that followed it even more of an anomaly.

• A1Dancing With the Moonlit Knight8:02
• A2I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)4:03
• A3Firth of Fifth9:36
• A4More Fool Me3:10
• B1The Battle of Epping Forest11:43
• B2After the Ordeal4:07
• B3The Cinema Show / Aisle of Plenty12:40
• Total length: 53:21