I had this on vinyl long ago, but only bought it yesterday on CD. Three for £1.50 in the charity shop, but I really couldn’t find two more to go with it. Thought I’d take a punt on something by Queens of the Stone Age, but the CD was missing, so I had to explain to the nice lady, that there wasn’t anything else on the shelf I wanted.
So, our old mate Selling England. The vocal opening to Dancing Out With The Moonlit Knight still makes me cringe, as does the line “knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout”, but there’s some prime prog in the middle there, followed by the excellent hit single (which I completely missed at the time) I Know What I Like.
Firth Of Fifth is entertaining without breaking any new ground, while Phil Collins’ second stab at lead vocals comes on the somewhat wimpy More Fool Me. The Battle of Epping Forest seemed clever and amusing forty years ago, but eleven minutes of it is quite hard work now. Musically, there’s a lot there, but Gabriel’s lyrics sound twee.
After The Ordeal is a pleasant instrumental piece, leading into the album highlight and live favourite Cinema Show. This would be a fine conclusion to the album, but for some reason we have the throwaway Aisle Of Plenty, which nicely reprises the main theme from Dancing Out With The Moonlit Knight, but is spoiled by some irritating wordplay by Gabriel.
3* - Lots to like, but some annoying lyrical content stops it being great
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