Genesis - Selling England By The Pound

Selling England By The Pound is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Genesis, originally released in October 1973 by Charisma Records.

Foxtrot proved that Genesis could rock, but on follow-up Selling England By The Pound they they returned to the English eccentricity of their first records, which wasn't so much a retreat as a consolidation of powers.

They hadn't sacrificed the immediacy of Foxtrot, instead they've married it to their eccentricity, finding ways to infuse it into the delicate whimsy that's been their calling card since the beginning. This, combined with many overt literary allusions gives this album a storybook quality.

It plays as a collection of short stories, fables, and fairy tales, and it is also a rock record, which naturally makes it quite extraordinary as a collection, but also as a set of individual songs.

Genesis has never been as direct as they've been on the fanciful yet hook-driven "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)", or as achingly fragile as on "More Fool Me", sung by Phil Collins.

It's this delicate balance and how the album showcases the band's narrative force on a small scale as well as large that makes this their arguable high-water mark.

Check out the tracks: “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” and "The Cinema Show".

This limited remastered LP with reproduced original artwork is pressed in Europe on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl.