Selling England by the Pound (1973)
Selling England by the Pound is a 1973 art rock album by Genesis.
Genesis were still a five-piece art-rock band led by Peter Gabriel when they cut their fifth album in 1973, and it remains their most English record. Across long, shifting suites like 'Firth of Fifth' and 'The Cinema Show,' the group folds pastoral folk, jazzy interplay, and Steve Hackett's liquid guitar into songs about a country losing itself to commerce and nostalgia. Gabriel's storytelling is playful and literate, full of characters and wordplay. It reached number three at home, gave the band their first UK hit single in 'I Know What I Like,' and became a touchstone of progressive rock.
Quick answers
What is Selling England by the Pound about?
Genesis were still a five-piece art-rock band led by Peter Gabriel when they cut their fifth album in 1973, and it remains their most English record. Across long, shifting suites like 'Firth of Fifth' and 'The Cinema Show,' the group folds pastoral folk, jazzy interplay, and Steve Hackett's liquid guitar into songs about a country losing itself to commerce and nostalgia. Gabriel's storytelling is playful and literate, full of characters and wordplay. It reached number three at home, gave the band their first UK hit single in 'I Know What I Like,' and became a touchstone of progressive rock.
When was Selling England by the Pound released?
Selling England by the Pound was released in 1973.
Who made Selling England by the Pound?
Selling England by the Pound is by Genesis.
Similar albums
Explore Selling England by the Pound guides
A few thoughts on Selling England by the Pound
If the album's very English whimsy and myth appeal, the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail plays in the same key of medieval pageantry turned absurd. Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell shares the literate, faintly antique storytelling, while the adventure of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild carries that pastoral wonder into wide green country.
English albums that hold a mirror to a changing country
Selling England by the Pound watches a nation trade its soul for commerce, folk memory losing to the shop counter. These records share that questioning eye on modern life, big British statements about money, alienation and the machinery of the age, built to be heard whole.
Progressive rock's most ambitious studio and stage epics
Selling England by the Pound builds long suites like 'Firth of Fifth' where the band plays as one restless mind. These albums and films chase the same reach, stretching songs into movements and turning the studio and the stage into instruments in their own right.