That's a tough call! If this was it's own thread, you'd get a lot of different answers.
SEbtP was the album that really sold me on Genesis. I'd heard the two albums that came before it (Nursery Crime and Foxtrot) and liked them well enough, but "Selling England" blew me away on first listen. It is generally very melodic; lots of stuff somewhere between "pretty" and "beautiful" on it, but there's some pretty powerful drumming from Phil ("Cinema Show" among other things is a virtual demonstration of options for grooving in 7/8). The follow-up, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is a very different beast; it's much more dark and aggressive (though there are some beautiful melodic moments in it). I sort of think of it as Genesis' "Relayer." But being a double album with a long, surrealistic storyline, it can be a lot to bite off and chew. After that, when Peter Gabriel left and Phil took over the vocals they made "Trick of the Tail." It's very strong and refined musically, but they lost some of the quirkiness and humor when they lost Peter. But for me, the run of those three albums was Genesis' at their best and I'd recommend any of them to the uninitiated. Still, SEbtP might be the best place to start.
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