Hackett describes an enthusiastic Peter Gabriel bouncing into the rehearsal room after hearing that John Lennon had mentioned in an interview that he “loved” the new Genesis album Selling England by the Pound . “We were incredibly proud of that,” says Hackett. “At a time when we could still hardly get a gig in the States, we had a good review from a great man. We thought, ‘Wow, maybe we’re good.’” Contemporary reviews for the album were mixed. Rolling Stones Paul Gambaccini praised the band for attempting something utterly different amidst a stagnant pop scene, but criticised the albums lyrics for their bad puns, their overuse of specifically British pop culture references, and their sometimes overtly silly rhymes. Despite additional complaints with some musical passages, they offered that the album merits some recognition. Retrospective reviews have been considerably more favourable. Allmusic, BBC Music, and The Daily Vault all commented that the album returned to the whimsical eccentricity of Nursery Cryme while retaining the hard rock intensity and pessimism of Foxtrot, combining the best of both elements to make Genesiss best album up to that point. The albums focus on storytelling was particularly applauded, and while The Daily Vault criticised the track More Fool Me as being jarringly out-of-place, they offered special praise for Tony Bankss distinctive keyboard work throughout Selling England by the Pound. Even Robert Christgau, who thoroughly panned most of Genesiss albums, admitted that the songs Firth of Fifth and The Battle of Epping Forest have a complexity of tone thats pretty rare in any kind of art, though he summarised the rest of the album by saying it sounds as snooty as usual. In 2012, the album ranked seventh in Rolling Stones Readers Poll: Your Favorite Prog Rock Albums of All Time. It was also included in IGNs list 10 Classic Prog Rock Albums in 2008. Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices considers Selling England by the Pound one of his ten favourite records of all time. O:) JES O:)
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:51:37 +0000
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