Genesis: Selling England By The Pound (LP)

2018 LP reissue HQ 180 gram. After the resounding success of "Foxtrot" and the fact that they had a reputation for performing in medium-sized concert halls, Genesis only needed one more really successful album to place them among their peers such as Yes and King Crimson. It was time to raise their potential once again. Strangely, they did this by going backwards. Their work always contained a pastoral longing and a sense of wanting to return to times gone by. No doubt their adherence to this surreal form of nostalgia stemmed from their scholastic background at Charterhouse, but after Foxtrot's rather obscure pronouncements about the end of the world, it was a sense of loss for the old order that characterized the selling... Hence the title. The album's opening track "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight" gives the perfect snapshot of what Genesis was all about at the time. Its folk roots gradually morphing into Elgar-esque jazz-rock grandeur as the band finally captured their true sound on vinyl. Even there, the eerie sense of Edwardian ghosts still lingers. At this point, Collins' jazz-rock drumming transformed their set pieces into much livelier offerings like the second part of "Cinema Show," which also foregrounds Gabriel's love of T.S. Eliot. It's all much smarter and still manages not to be too intrusive, despite the use of words like "undynal" in "Firth Of Fifth" (the puns still came). It also allowed Gabriel to don an even more outrageous stage wardrobe. Hackett's work on the latter is fantastic, his sound now entirely his own; a rare feat in rock indeed. Even Gabriel's flute sounded polished now. Only 'The Battle Of Epping Forest' seemed out of place, its comedic values at odds with its violent theme. Banks plays a lot more piano here and synthesizers now got a look in, as on the aforementioned "Cinema Show". To top it all off, the single "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" finally cracked the band's single charts with its tale of small town eccentrics. It seemed as if the world was finally ready for Genesis.