Quadrophenia
by The Who

I am biased! I was a mod in the 60s and The Who were my favourite band....by some distance. Seeing them live was a life changing experience. I think this is Pete's master work, the essence of who he was and how he felt growing up too. It is the epitome of the "the whole is greater that the sum of it's parts". The whole concept works and the songs take you to a time and a place and a feeling and an angst and a despair and a joy and a thrill. And the more you listen the deeper you get and then you forget individual tracks and "get" the whole. All four band members were on their top form for these recordings, Daltrey, particularly, sings like a man possessed. Perhaps the American audience do not see the mod psyche as the Brits do, and some see the album as rather depressing...there is no happy ending. But a work of some considerable genius.

Everything here - the singing, the drums, the bass, the guitar, the lyrics, and the music itself can easily contend with anything written in popular music, ever. This album is absurdly underrated, and the fact that it is only 120th overall on this site is a rather large grass stain on the metaphorical blue jean that this site is.

From HyperBully 04/11/2010 08:11 | #10506 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This was every teenager's album, including mine. Whenever I was frustrated about anything, I would lock myself in my room and listen to this album all the way through. I still do. Words can't properly express my love for this album. And I thought Tommy was good. (Edited)

I find, Quadrophenia, a much more coherent listening experience than The Who's previous rock opera, Tommy. The story is still a little vague, but where as on, Tommy, it sounds like snippets of music put together, Quadrophenia, sounds fuller and tighter. The band off course at this point are at the peak of their powers and the album sounds absolutely massive, much more powerful than they did on, Tommy. The record itself features some fantastic songs including, the real me(listen to that bass), the dirty jobs, and, cut my hair. Best though is the brilliant, 5:15, one of my top three favourite Who songs, and then there's the powerful, love reign o'ver me, a stunning ending. If there are any quibbles, it's that a lot of the songs on the second disc sound similar, it's sometimes hard to distinguish between the tracks, I actually think John Entwistle had the same reservations, and I personally find the moment on, Dr.Jimmy, when Roger Daltrey sings,'who is She?, I'll rape it', extremely uncomfortable. As for the overall story, I think seeing the excellent 1979 movie version really helps to understand the narrative. Quadrophenia, would be the last truly great Who album, they would never be this great again, so for all it's flaws, it's still nice to hear the band this together for one last time.

From Mr. Shankly TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/25/2010 12:57 | #13704 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

It's cool to see so many new (and old) members acknowledging the greatness of this album.