Genesis: Selling England By The Pound (1973)

Genesis are one of my latest 70's rock discoveries; of course I knew the band and sometimes heard post A Lamb Lies Down On Broadway hits on the radio, but I was far from realising that Genesis were amongst Kings of early 70's progressive music. Not only the band's gem but also one of the best prog albums ever made. It is clear that Genesis has two phases: a Peter Gabriel one and a second phase ...

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Log #84 - Heaven or 'El(p)

Pure Class Continuing an eclectic mix of music this week we have dance, blues, world, and prog. Record of the week comes in the shapely form of the Cocteau Twins. Many fans standby their early indie music as their best although I prefer the latter period albums, this one Heaven or Las Vegas, or Four Calendar Cafe. They were very much of their time and were mainstays of the excellent ...

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Log #75 - Pat Metheny Goes Offramp and Genesis are Reborn With Possibly Their Best Yet

This week we continue our female vocalist focus with albums by Carole King, Marianne Faithfull, Caitlin Canty and Larkin Poe. Pat Metheny swings by with his 1980s jazz fusion group and we finally complete the Genesis mark 1.5 trilogy with possibly their best album of all. ~ 1. Larkin Poe - Fall 2. Carole King - Tapestry 3. Marianne Faithfull - A Stranger On Earth 4. Caitlin ...

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The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis

It's no wonder that Peter Gabriel left Genesis after this album. It's the sound of a leader moving sharply in the opposite direction to their band. A showman onstage and a painfully shy man off, he’d been approached by The Exorcist director William Friedkin, impressed with short story Gabriel had written on the back of Genesis Live, with regards to him writing a screenplay. Gabriel took himself ...

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Log #72 - Genesis Chapter One and a Half

I like a bit of honky tonk (we're talking Exile on Main Street or Little Feat here) so thought I'd try some Chicago hearing they were a rock band with a brass section. It is a bit too easy listening for me, but there are plenty of famous tunes on this compilation that I hadn't realised were Chicago. ~ 1. Chicago - The Heart of Chicago 2. Genesis - Nursery Cryme 3. Genesis ...

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Log #71 - Two Camels and a Dummy

~ 1. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 2. Genesis - Selling England By The Pound 3. Portishead - Dummy 4. Camel - The Snow Goose 5. Camel - Moonmadness6. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean ~ Two Classic Camels While rediscovering Genesis over the last few weeks I noticed the band that resembled them the most to my ears was Camel. Both proggers are quite ...

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Log #69 - From Raising Hell to Raising Sand

I pick up a lot of CDs from Charity Shops - often for a £1 or less! For example this week I came across Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Raising Sand album which I'd heard a lot about but had never listened to (it's a cracker). Of course there's always a lot of junk in the charity bins too - the same old rubbish gets recycled before eventually ending up in landfill presumably. It is rare to find ...

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Log #68 - Lovely Cardboard Covers (albeit not necessarily legible!)

Good evening pop pickers. What do we have here this week?  Not a large degree of change since last week - but brand new entries from The Goat Roper Rodeo Band and DJ Vadim, and slightly new entries from Genesis and Can with fellow old timers Beck and Neil Young leading the way. ~ 1. Beck - Colors 2. Neil Young - Hitchhiker 3. The Goat Roper Rodeo Band - Cosmic Country ...

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Log #67 - From Prog To Pop

Many bands of course change direction during their careers. Sometimes this is a natural progression or development. Sometimes it's an unavoidable result of changing personnel or a result of burnout leaving bands bereft of new ideas (how many bands shoot their loads completely with a tremendous first album which has in essence been many years in the making, but then understandably fail to follow ...

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