Genesis' increasing strength was an ability to create accessible music that would appeal to a broader pop public, while still retaining the earmarks of progressive rock that attracted an audience in the first place. Banks' mellotron has never sounded better (more so here, with the remix/remaster), the choir part at the end of Hackett's solo on "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" still capable of sending chills up the spine, the orchestral strings on "Firth of Fifth" and "The Cinema Show" as boldly dramatic as ever. Selling England was also Banks' first significant foray into synthesizers, using them to great textural effect on "I Know What I Like" and creating a personal tone for his lengthy solo on "The Cinema Show" that manages to still sound good (and not cheesy) 35 years later. He also delivers some of his best acoustic piano work to date on his solo intro to "Firth of Fifth."

Being the bassist and rhythm guitarist for Genesis, Rutherford's significance has often been overlooked. But effortlessly moving from bass to twelve-string guitar on his custom-built Rickenbacker double-neck guitar while, at the same time, creating a distinctive, deep bottom end with his bass pedals, Rutherford was a virtual one-man rhythm section. He locked in hand-in-glove with Collins, whose ability to mix impressive chops and solid groove is even more impressive on Selling England. Collins also gets another brief lead vocal spot on the folksy "More Fool Me," a concert respite, in duet with Rutherford, from the group's more powerful theatrical presentation.

The two overlooked tracks on Selling England—the episodic "The Battle of Epping Forest" and instrumental "After the Ordeal," that provides a balladic, lyrical interlude between "Battle" and "Cinema Show"—have always deserved more attention than they received at the time. "Epping," in particular, is an engaging story that expands the narrative approach of Foxtrot's "Get 'Em Out By Friday." But neither would become the concert favorites that "Cinema Show" and "Firth of Firth" not only were at the time, but continued to be throughout the group's post- Gabriel years, with a portion of "Cinema Show" appearing as recently as Live Over Europe 2007 (Atlantic, 2008), from the group's 2007 reunion tour (without Hackett and Gabriel).

In addition to the same improvements in sound, depth and detail that the remix of Selling England provides, there are small things peppered throughout that are heard for the first time, making this remix/remaster, like the rest of the releases in this box, the definitive edition.

Following up the group's most commercially (and, some might argue, artistically) successful record to date with a two-disc concept album may well have been a tactical mistake. While other groups had done so, by the time The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was released in 1974, progressive rock was already in trouble. The punk movement had yet to emerge, but concept albums from Yes and Jethro Tull—Tales from Topographic Oceans (Atlantic, 1973) and A Passion Play (Chrysalis, 1973)—had been met with critical accusations of excess and self-indulgence. In that climate, The Lamb was almost doomed from the start, despite Genesis' ongoing and steadfast avoidance of the qualities (or, some might say, flaws) that caused its peer groups to begin falling out of favor with both the press and public.