Alright, so clearly Who's Next is the next one to buy. The people have spoken.

I didn't include the live one just because I don't care that much for live albums myself. Or, if I do buy them, it's after I own all the studio albums by the band first. So even if that live album is better than their second and third album, I probably won't pick that up until much later.

I would bet that a lot of the anti-Who's Next feeling comes from people who were overexposed to it on classic rock radio, but if you're relatively virginal on the Who, it's the pinnacle of the mature Who sound. The remastered-with-bonus-tracks single-disc version of a few years back adds a number of nearly-as-good songs that were intended for an abandoned double-album project called Lifehouse. Townshend was tossing out genius songs right and left in this period.

My Generation is great, rough and rocking, though there are a couple of those R&B cover fillers that show up on a lot of early British rock albums.

A Quick One is good but patchy--everybody took a shot at songwriting on this one. The two most well-known songs (Boris the Spider, Happy Jack) are pretty lightweight as Who songs go, and the mini-opera that seems to impress so many people (A Quick One While He's Away) feels like an extended novelty song to me.

Sell Out is as much a favorite of mine as Who's Next, but it's pretty unique in the Who canon--in many ways it sounds like no other album they ever recorded. It's certainly more playful than any of their other albums. Townshend was writing a lot of humorous character study singles at the time (Substitute, I'm a Boy, Happy Jack, Pictures of Lily), so really the closest album to Sell Out is the killer early singles compilation Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, which contains a lot of those non-LP singles and more. Unfortunately, Meaty Beaty was never upgraded like all the other Who albums were in the '90s, and I think it's currently out of print.

(As an aside, while the bonus-cut-filled '90s upgrades of the Who catalog did wonders for the sound quality, they left a lot of the early singles out in the cold--if you want to get the remastered versions of "Substitute" or "I'm a Boy" or several others, you're stuck buying one or more redundant Greatest Hits collections or the excellent 30 Years box set.)

Magic Bus was a US-only collection of b-sides and off cuts that is also out of print, but everything on it shows up as a bonus cut on some other album nowadays, so there's no need to own it.

Tommy, as others have said, also suffers from classic-rock-radio overkill, and the song fragments shoehorned in to help tell the story (ridiculous as it is) detract, but there's still at least an album's worth of great material.


This is correct. The answer to the question "What is the first album I should pick up by 'Insert Artist Here'?" is never a live album, regardless of how great a live band they are. (Well, maybe the Dead or Phish or somebody. And Cheap Trick Live at Budokan, but that's it.) But yes, Live at Leeds is one of the greatest live albums ever.

Odds & Sods should not be ignored--it's certainly leagues better than Face Dances--but it's a somewhat schizophrenic collection of outtakes, b-sides and tracks that didn't fit elsewhere. Still, the Who threw away better stuff than many bands put on their regular albums.

If Tommy was a perfect example of how klunky and silly the idea of a rock opera was, Quadrophenia gets it right. A lyrically dense character portrait with some of the Who's best instrumental work, it may not impress so much at first but has revealed it's depth over the years and become a firm favorite of mine.

By Numbers, in a way, is as much of an odds & sods collection as O&S, a gathering of bitterly serious songs (and a couple of oddball throwaways) from a time when Townshend was losing control, overdosing on the whole rock & roll lifestyle.

Who Are You is pretty solid though it's no masterpiece.

Face Dances has about three really good songs and a bunch of also-rans (Townshend used up most of his good material on his Empty Glass solo album). Keith's dead. The worst Who album.

Most people hate It's Hard as much as Face Dances; while it's no classic, I think it's terribly underrated.

The two Missing albums have some interesting material amid the outtakes and b-sides (the Who had a lot of b-sides and one-offs), most of which have shown up as bonus cuts on other CDs, but there are some significant cuts that have never shown up on any of the reissues.

I should have been in bed an hour ago.

Yeah, but the ". . . you are forgiven . . ." part makes the whole song worthwhile. In fact, I need to listen to that now. We're ALL forgiven, *Splonk*!

Yeah, but the "You're all forgiven" line is only in the live version. Aaah, give me "Rael" over this anyday.

Apropos of nothing, the "Underture" from Tommy may be my favorite rock instrumental ever.

i have a huge soft spot for Face Dances.

it's the only Who album i have listened to all the way through in the last 6 years.

The Who's Next hits have to be some of the most overplayed FM songs of all time. Now it's hard to avoid on car commercials. Meanwhile, I pl ayed Sell Out (plus bonus cuts) a couple months agao and it is still as fresh as a daisy so I'll vote it if Meaty Beatyis not eligible. I also was looking forward to a listen to Face DAnces which I hadn't heard in a LONG time but wasn't that into it. I was multi-tasking at the time, but still...my mind wandered quite a bit. It's Hard is the next one to revisit but i'm not sure when I'll get around to it. Two things are certain--we'll get our 50th Who comp for this movie with Mike Meyers playing Keith Moon. And it won't be as good as Meaty Beaty.

After purchasing Sell Out, I asked this same question on here a few months ago and the popular answer was Who's Next.

I picked up Who's Next over the holidays and I am quite disappointed. It does seem lame and subdued compared to the rocking, raw fun of Sell out. Frankly, I don't get it.

What's with all the piano?

Quadrophenia

May I suggest . . .

I'm totally with you on this. There are really only two songs on Who's Next that seriously suffer from overplay (though they're pretty key being the opening and closing tracks) and one less so ("Going Mobile"). When I finally got the album, I just found the meat of it to be a big disappointment. "The Song Is Over"? Not soon enough. "Behind Blue Eyes"? Eh. "Getting in Tune" is alright, I guess, but the melody is pretty annoying if it ever gets stuck in my head.

Sell Out, on the other hand, is just so chock full of goodness, especially the expanded CD version. I went ahead and voted for it in the poll after all.

If you don't have it already, I'd say try and seek out a deal on the deluxe edition of My Generation. I think that's the only version of the album that's gotten a good remastering, although it's pretty expensive. I lucked out and found a used copy. It's not a perfect reissue, though, as it only contains alternate versions of two of the relevant singles from the period ("Ahyhow, Anywhere, Anyway", "Leaving Here") and not the original versions. I disagree with Lump that the R&B covers on the album come across as typical filler. I really enjoy the two James Brown covers ("I Don't Mind", "Please, Please, Please") and those account for two of the three covers out of the album's 13 tracks.

I've been wondering what Who album to get next, myself, although Who's Next (being the last one that I bought) has had me pretty unenthused about the prospects.

I voted Quadrophenia, but I can understand and appreciate the "Who's Next" love.

LIVE AT LEEDS.

that this isn't an option negates this whole thread.

yeah I saw that. It's still crap reasoning to me though. As a live band the Who were so far ahead of the curve it is ridiculous. all their early albums sound like they were recorded in metal garbage cans and the rock operas are too involved. If you ask me, the who sound like a bunch of drunk guys beating the piss out of their instruments. hence, Live at Leeds.

Plays like a freaking Greatest Hits.
When I was 13 I thought it actually was!
Amazing to me that it was released as an album with that tracklisting.

It was while listening to Live at Leeds and watching Live at the Isle of Wight that I realized that Keith Moon didn't use a high hat . . . holy crap! I'll have to thank my friend Jared for clueing me in on this awesome fact. What a drummer.

Live at Leeds cranked late at night when you're 1/4 buzzed driving through Texas Hill Country backroads with deer staring at you out of the shadows is beyond a transcendent experience.