| Selling England by the Masterpiece... (review from amazon.co.uk) |
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... because that's what 'Selling England by the Pound' is. It is a masterwork of at-times pastoral, at other times complex and cerebral "art" rock that, at the risk of sounding revanchist and nostalgic, simply is NOT being recorded today. Lyrically, there are too many layers and allusions in this album to fully explicate here, but references to myth, both ancient (Tiresias) and more "modern" (Britannia), abound. Musically, the album covers terrain from crunching, galloping hard rock to some of the most ethereal, beautifully arpeggiated keyboard and guitar playing that it's possible to imagine.
In short, the members of Genesis were (and still are, at least in the cases of Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks - controversy, anyone?) master musicians, composers and conceptualists.
I bought this disc from Great Britain in order to get the U.K.-only SACD edition, and I'm glad I did. Both the standard CD and DVD versions of the album available on the American edition suffer somewhat from the excessive compression that's been mentioned elsewhere. The SACD sound on the U.K. edition is beautiful, revealing nuances (there's a tambourine on "Cinema Show? I hadn't hear it before!) and over- and under-tones to instruments not possible to hear otherwise. Also, and SACD fans will know what I mean by this, because of its super-sharp resolution, with SACD one can somehow be "aware" of all instruments and sounds in the recording "at the same time" in a way that is impossible with other formats.
In any case, this disc is emphatically recommended for listeners with a "head" for this kind of music, or those who seek a revelatory listening experience...
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| Genesis' best album receives faultless release on SACD (review from amazon.co.uk) |
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Although I was a little disappointed with the 76-80 Genesis SACD releases, which I did think suffered in varying degrees with unwelcome compression and E.Q. boosting, these earlier disks are a different story altogether and are practically flawless in my opinion.
From the moment Gabriel breathes out the opening line of the album, it is obvious that levels of clarity, spaciousness and tone are greatly increased. The perceived soundstage is huge; expansive and deep. Detail is resolved perfectly right into the back of the mix. Bass is deep and rich, extending subtley to all instruments including voice, acoustic guitars and piano, adding real presence and weight. High frequencies are also perfect; cymbals in particular are flawless without a hint of splashiness. Bank's piano introduction to Firth of Fifth now has the air of a classical recording; beautifully played and with a newly revealed delicacy, it had me wondering for the first time if it may have been his response to Hackett's Horizons from the previous Foxtrot. Listening to Cinema Show, the thick tangle of six and twelve string guitars is now deliciously separated, and even Gabriel's doubled vocal can now be heard as two distinct entities. The more you listen, the better the story gets.
Of course the SACD is only half the package, and the DVD contains DD/DTS 5.1 mixes of the entire album, plus some good classic concert footage (although as another reviewer has pointed out image and sound quality is only fair, and has in fact been hit and miss throughout these new releases). The interviews are excellent though, with all members making some pretty candid observations.
Well, it turns out the wait was worth it in the end, and luckily the best job was made of the earlier classics. How unfortunate that Seconds Out and the other live Genesis albums are now no longer to get an SACD treatment.
Nice to see that the cover has at last been reproduced correctly with the pea green border by the way.
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| This is IT! (review from amazon.co.uk) |
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This could be the one truly essential Genesis CD/DVD that you have to own/experience before you die, if you want to fully understand the course of popular music over the past 38 years of popular music.
I'm not talking about the "Selling England" album itself, as great as it is, but this particular package with the bonus DVD. If any one item is going to convert the sceptics...if anything is going to show the Genesis "haters" (who don't actually know much about the band) just what all the fuss was about, it's this!
Because the bonus DVD finally brings into the public domain - after decades of bootlegging - the legendary "Shepperton Studios" concert film.
This film is the set text for Genesis-ologists - the one that all the decent tribute bands learned their stagecraft from, the one that they all seek to copy (actually the one that they do copy when they're getting their stage-clothes and set-dressing custom-built). The full Peter Gabriel Experience: with the legendary masks, makeup and headdresses, with those strange stories introducing the songs - oh, yes, and he was near the peak of his powers as a singer at this stage, too! But as we were saying...watching the "beheading" preamble to "The Musical Box", or his convincing transformation into an arthritic-but-still-horny old man in the last part of the song, it's hard believe he didn't have some mime training - he's easily a better musical character-actor than David Bowie.
The sound and vision quality here and on the other visual extra (a French TV broadcast where the songs are badly edited and the interviews are in French, but at least we get to see the "fox in a red dress" costume) aren't top-notch, it must be said. It's a shame they weren't able to give these films a fresh lick of digital paint - instead they seem to have "booted the boots" in the absence of the original source-tapes.
But it really doesn't matter! The fact is, these films - or the Shepperton one, at least - are in a way the most essential Genesis documents: they show you exactly what the band's enduring cult appeal is based on, whereas the greatest-hit albums definitely don't!
As to the "Selling England..." album - well, a lot has been said already about it. I'll just add this: Those who argue that it's their finest hour are generally the same people who are less fond of the "incomprehensible lyrics" on the studio albums either side of it. If, therefore, it's the most accessible album of the Gabriel era, it must be because - as we can see, with hindsight - they were already simplifying their music, and this album unusually has simple lyrical subject-matter to match - rampant consumerism and the disappearance of England's cultural identity [you think that's bad?! - say I]; 1950s American dating rituals; a well-remembered mass-brawl amongst East End gangsters; even the first instalment in the saga of Phil Collins's lousy relationships (pity it wasn't the last!)
They were, perhaps, losing some of their musical uniqueness already - the songs aren't quite as chock-full of tempo-changes and diverse instrumental timbres as they used to be. But - you're not likely to be conscious of that when listening to the album, with just about every track a classic. In truth, composition-wise and performance-wise it can hardly be faulted.
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| Great memories of early Genesis performances in the UK (review from amazon.co.uk) |
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As somebody who saw Genesis several times during their Steve Hackett / Peter Gabriel "town-hall-and-college" touring days and as someone who endured the scratch, crackle and pops of those well-worn vinyls in bedsit land, I have to say that I think this remastered stuff sounds great. I love the sound. How I tried everything I could to get a good, clear punchy sound from my original Pioneer turntable, Trio amp and Goodmans speakers way back then.
Along with "Foxtrot", this always was a fabulous album that trips many memories for me, and to hear this remastered version in all its glory brings them all back! Yes, it might be a high on EQ but for my eardrums, having taken a battering at gigs over the years, it's just about right.
Lovely stuff.
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