Genesis - Selling England By The Pound

What makes an album good? I've listened to thousands of them, and i've come to the conclusion that it isn't the songs or the artwork or the people or even the physical medium. The short answer is simply that its contents express its concept. 

The long answer is, well, longer. The concept of an album isn't necessarily the title or the story or anything technical; the concept is the answer to the question "why is this an album?" Some albums exist because people want to make an album, some exist to tell a story, some exist merely because the people involved were in some way obligated to make them. None of that is inherently good or bad, so we have to reach deep into the human psyche for some unquantifiable yet undeniable truth. That truth is this: 

An album that purports to tell a story should in fact tell it, and an album that wears the uniform of Random Crap should contain exactly said random crap. Examples might help. 

Say you have an album entitled Soundtrack of the Major Motion Picture Dunstin Checks In. I think we can all agree that if it does in fact contain music that also happens in the movie then it is qualitatively good. If however it contains 47 minutes of Brazilian Jazz, then we can all equally agree that it is in fact bad. 

Or, take an album i perennially dislike with every fiber of my being, Seether's *Disclaimer. Hate it as much as I want i can't claim it's a bad album, top to bottom it adamantly denies responsibility for anything; 45 minutes of nonsense song titles, grotesque self-centrism, trailer park level trashiness, diarrhea bass-lines, and the kind of "not my fault" even when it clearly is that makes guys like Trump, Musk, or even Ted Nugent look like awkward amateurs. 

Conversely, Provision by Scritti Politti invalidates its own existence by not providing anything of any coherent substance at all. As "food for thought" it might actually contain fewer nutrients than packing peanuts. My point is that it's actually really hard for humans to create an actual bad album, that's why the vast majority of them turn out to be good regardless of what they sonically contain. 

This little collection i picked up earlier in the week has coincidentally turned out to be all about how much our corporate overlords actually make the world suck no matter what they do (it's coincidental because at work we went to a new computer system and it has been a real struggle). Pink Floyd battled sleazy management without Syd to guide them, Dire Straits pointed out you have to make a conscious effort to prevent the march of supposed progress, Bob James avoided the whole quagmire by never selling out in the first place, and now Genesis will show us how it happened to an entire country in the 70s. Reviewing Selling England By The Pound isn't necessary at all. It's a quintessentially good album that tells you exactly everything you need to know to interpret it. It's about the loss of English folk traditions in the wake of increasing Americanization. 

You might like it, you might not, i don't think it matters as long as you understand that you can't actually stop it. All you can do is think about the situation and decide whether or not you are going to participate. If all it boils down to is chasing money, though, chances are it will turn out pretty crummy for everyone regardless, so the choice is in essence meaningless. Genesis, at least in 1973, isn't interested in selling out just to make a few shillings.