And there is, in fact, more earth than sea

Genesis - Selling England by the Pound - 1973

This album is pretty much universally considered Genesis's masterpiece and, while I've always been more partial to The Lamb lies down on Broadway, their next album, this one comes pretty damn close to it.
Ironically enough, upon initial release, it got critics quite divided on their opinion, with many of them finding the album "too British". Well, it is quite British, indeed, but I find it quite funny how mostly American critics take it for granted that they will automatically understand everything and that they will feel annoyed when lyrics reference things that happen outside the confines of the US. I find it funny but it doesn't surprise me much. At any rate it's interesting how in Argentina, where we were farther from understanding, this was pretty much the Genesis album.
It is a very British album and deals with much more realistic subject matters than their previous works: consumerism ("Dance with the Moonlit Knight"), territorial gang battles in the London East End ("Battle of Epping Forest"), dating ("Cinema Show"), and that's about it, because "Firth of Fifth" is much more obscure, "More Fool me" is garden variety love song, and the rest are instrumental. It's not as relatable as Pink Floyd's Dark Side, but it's much more approachable than what they'd done before.
Musically, while it's not perfect, it's absolutely brilliant for the most part. What strikes me the most is that, while they still tend to meander a bit, they seemed to have learned an important lesson from the amazing "Supper's Ready": if you have sections with strong, beautiful melodies, you can get away a lot more with over complicated sections that seem to go nowhere. It's an oversimplification on my part, I know, but that's the feeling I get, and it causes the effect that this is an album that the more you listen to, the better it gets.

• The opening track, "Dance with the Moonlit Knight" starts with Gabriel singing a cappella with the keyboard slowly making an appearance. It's one of my favourite beginnings of a song ever. I wonder how many Brits now identify with the opening line "Can you tell me where my country lies".  
• They released "I know what I like (in your Wardrobe)" as a single, and it was the closest to pop that they would come in the early years. It's a good and slightly quirky song, but has never been one of my top choices.
• As I said, "More Fool me" is a rather bland love song and Phil Collins's singing in it makes it even more bland. 
• The title of the post doesn't mean that either I or they lost our minds. "The Cinema Show", apart from being about two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, about to go on a date, refers to the myth of Tiresias, Greek guy that was converted into a woman, and then back to a man. Zeus and Hera were arguing about who gets more pleasure in sex and they consulted Tiresias who, obviously, had to know. Hera said men did, Zeus said women did. Tiresias said: "Of ten parts a man enjoys only one". Hera struck him blind. Zeus, not wanting to contradict the wife but feeling sorry for him, granted him the gift of foresight and a very long life. The lyrics say "Take a little trip back with father Tiresias /[...]/ Once a man, like the sea I raged / Once a woman, like the earth I gave / And there is, in fact, more earth than sea. "
  This is probably the longest bullet point in history, but you have to admit that Greek mythology is pretty awesome. Who needs telenovelas when you have them? 
• The album closes with "Aisle of Plenty", a reprise of the opening track, that ends with prices of supermarket products on offer. It also has, in the sung part the line "Tess Co-Operates". Get the pun? (I only got it now, after living in the UK and buying in both supermarkets!). 
• I'm choosing "Firth of Fifth" ( the title is a pun on "Firth of Forth", in Scotland), which is one of my favourites here, and has some of the most beautiful melodies ever and brilliant work from Gabriel, Banks and Hackett. 

What an excellent day for an exorcism

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells - 1973

Yes, I know, quoting The Exorcist is a bit of a cheap shot. On my defence, I'll say that it's my favourite horror movie ever, and also, the album is instrumental (plus some weird choirs here and there), so there aren't any lyrics to quote. And it's too good of an album not to put some quote. 

Also, let's face it, most people know this work because of the movie. And it's a bit of a shame because it's seriously a brilliant piece of music, all 50 minutes or so of it. 

And it's not all that frequently that I will like such long works when they don't have any lyrics at all. But this one is cool, varied, musically amazing, and while it's not an album I would listen to on a daily basis, it's a brilliant choice for when you want to listen to really good music. 

• Mike Oldfield never actually watch The Exorcist, because he thought it would be too scary. He plays all the instruments here, and I found that a bit scary. 
• Continuing with the cheap shots, I'm posting a clip from the movie, with the first 6 minutes or so of the album. It doesn't really make much sense to put the whole 50 minutes here, you can find it in YouTube. 

And also.....

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery - 1973

I've often wondered why I haven't really listened to much ELP throughout the years, and this album gives me pretty much all the answers I was looking for. 

It's all that I don't like about prog condensed in one album: pretentious to no end, constantly going nowhere, perfectly executed by lacking any feeling whatsoever, and generally annoying. 

Pete Sinfield, former King Crimson, collaborated here and, while listening to it, I often thought they sounded like a less imaginative, less talented King Crimson. And with less feeling. At least when KC are having fun, it's brilliant and contagious ("21st Century Schizoid Man" comes to mind in all its insane brilliancy). But here you don't have fun. Just noise and exasperation. 

• The cover art was done by H.R.Giger, who some of you may have heard of, because he was Alien's creator. He also worked for numerous other musicians, including Deborah Harry, Danzig and Korn.
• I'm putting "Benny the Bouncer" here. It's the one that makes me thing of "failed King Crimson" the most, but at least it's short. 

Random thoughts

• I was under the impression that Deep Purple had been particularly mistreated by Argentinean translators. Then I got to Genesis. In Argentina, the album was called "Vendiendo Inglaterra por una Libra" ("Selling England for a pound"). "More Fool me" was "Sigue burlándote" ("Keep on fooling me") and, one of my personal all-time favourites, "Firth of Fifth" became "Quinto de Quinto" (Fifth of Fifth"), which doesn't make any sense at all.