Search - Genesis :: Selling England By the Pound

Genesis' first American charting studio album gets a sonic m

Terrence J. Reardon | Lake Worth (a west Palm Beach suburb), FL | 05/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Genesis' fifth studio effort Selling England by the Pound was released in October of 1973.

By 1973, Genesis (which comprised of singer Peter Gabriel, bass player Mike Rutherford, keyboard player Tony Banks, drummer Phil Collins and guitarist Steve Hackett) had developed a cult following and respect with rock fans. However, the band's commercial aspects in the US were not great as Buddah Records (who distributed Charisma in the US) did nothing for the band. Charisma changed distributors Stateside from Buddah to Atlantic (which was home to Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Cream and many others) and this gave the band some confidence to record its next album as they were now at the same home as Zeppelin and The Stones. Would Selling England By the Pound be a classic or would the band fall from grace. Read on and find out.

We open the album with Gabriel singing the acapella intro to "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" which told the tale of the demise of "good old England" and the rise of commercial, modern England. Gabriel's brilliant vocals and lyrics are matched by brilliant guitar work of Steve and Mike and additional musicianship from Tony and Phil as the song becomes a superb climactic rock number after its soft start. Next is the band's first UK Top 20 hit "I Know What I Like". This piece tells the story of a lawnmower sitting on the porch which was one of the band's first tracks to feature a synthesizer and a great piece. Next is the majestic "Firth of Fifth". It begins with a piano solo by Banks and launches into a grand epic. The song features a flute solo, a synthesizer solo and one of Hackett's most memorable guitar solos. The first half closed with "More Fool Me" which was Phil's second lead vocal with Genesis. A nice break-up song written by Mike and Phil.

The album's second half starts with "The Battle of Epping Forest" which is an epic about a gang fight with references back to medieval England and excellent muscianship by the Genesis members. Great piece. Next is one of Hackett's classic guitar pieces "After the Ordeal". Next is the epic "The Cinema Show" which is one of the band's best epics. From the opening 12-string guitar doodle, you are then thrown head first into a beautiful song for six minutes. Then, the song breaks into a superb synthesizer solo section which is hard to describe. We close the album with "Aisle of Plenty" which is somewhat of a reprise to the album's opening track but a nice piece nevertheless.

Selling England By the Pound gave Genesis their first crack in the US Top 100 album charts peaking at #70 in 1974 paving the way for more success in the future and eventually reached Gold status in US sales. It reached #3 in their native UK. Sales aside, Genesis were maturing and becoming a band to be reckoned with.

In November of 2008, Rhino/Atlantic re-released the album as a CD/DVD set. The album was painstakingly remixed by engineer Nick Davis in stereo for excellent sound (in a similar manner to what was done to The Who catalog in the 1990s). The new mixes are AMAZING and I hear things in the new mixes that I have not ever heard before. The DVD was in 5.1 and had an excellent slide show with the album and interviews with band members, their classic Shepperton Studios concert that was filmed around Selling England's release but only aired on Italian TV but scrapped by rest of the world (but widely bootlegged) and the Batalcan Theater in France earlier that same year. In March, 2009, Virgin/EMI re-released the 2008 mix of the album as a single CD set.

This new mix of Selling England is recommended!"

A Re-Mix Not A Remaster--Hearing 'Everything' Not Always Bet

Brett A. McConnell | San Diego, CA | 02/21/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I am a bit dismayed with tastes now-a-days... I am not too old, not too young. This album was originally recorded, mixed and mastered a couple years before I was born and I hate to say it, but those efforts were way more sublime and appropriate for this album, an album of delicate and articulate material.



It seems some of the original tracks could not be found for this remix. The most beautiful and endearing vocals ever delivered by Gabriel open the original mixes of this album. But on this version those a capella opening lines are very noticeably different form the original mixes and here on this remix sound more like a patch work of two or three takes. Overall very weak and enough to ruin this re-presentation of Selling England By The Pound for this listener.



As seems to be the case with all of these Nick Davis re-mixes, the stereo mix definitely took the back-seat to the surround mix. Sometimes the mix feels congested, nasal in the mid-range, sometime vocals are in that mid-range jumble and sometimes they jump into you lap. I dare say I think ONLY the 5.1 mixes were created or even cared about in this very ambitious Genesis re-mix project. Most likely an automated, computer decided upon, stereo mix-down is what we are left with, those of us who still prefer 2 (or 2.1).



Nick did a good job on the definitive remasters, especially with The Lamb... I would suggest sticking with those if you want to hear nicely EQed and cleaner versions of the original stereo mixes of any/all Genesis albums. A lot of what was done by the original engineers and producers of those albums really did enhance and solidify Genesis' in-studio presence and overall musical presentation."

Beautiful

RockinRobin411 | 09/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The album begins with Peter Gabriel singing a cappella. The melody he sings has a celtic feel, and then the band joins in. The tune goes through several different layers of dynamics and tempo. That tune is followed by the first Genesis hit single, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" which is similar to some of the stuff Peter Gabriel did later on in his solo career. It's a good pop song, and it works really well. "Firth of Fifth" begins so powerfully, and has a beautiful guitar solo in it. It's a beautiful tune, and like the opening track, it goes through several different layers. Phil Collins has become known as the lead singer for Genesis. However, on this album, Peter Gabriel was the lead singer. Phil Collins was given the spotlight for his own song, "More Fool Me," which was a beautiful song. It's probably the softest song on the album. "The Battle of Epping Forest" is a track that several of the members themselves have criticized, but it's not that different from "Get 'Em Out By Friday" from the previous album. "After the Ordeal" is an instrumental track, and several of the members didn't like it, which is what led to Steve Hackett (the guitarist, and the person who composed "After the Ordeal") to leaving the band. Obviously, that was only a small part of it. The album concludes with "The Cinema Show" and "Aisle of Plenty."



This is definitely a favorite Genesis album of mine, and although they have become known for their Phil Collins-era music, I think that this is Genesis at some their best."