Rank The Who's Albums

Who's Next
Live at Leeds
Tommy
Quadrophenia
The Who Sell Out
Meaty,Beaty,Big and Bouncy
The Who Sings My Generation
A Quick One
The Who By Numbers
Odds and Sods
Magic Bus
Who Are You?
Face Dances
It's Hard

I've never heard of let alone listened to Endless Wire.

 

1. Quadrophenia
2. Who's Next
3= Live At Leeds / Live at The Isle Of Wight
4= Everything else.

 

Ya, this is how I'd rate 'em.

 

1. Quadrophenia
2. Who's Next
3. Odds & Sods
4. My Generation
5. Tommy
6. By Number
7. Sell Out
8. Face Dances
9. A Quick One
10. Who Are You
11. It's Hard

love 'em all, my favorite band

 

1. Who's Next ( By a long shot.)
2. Quadrophenoa
3. Live at Leeds
4. Tommy
HUGE drop after this

 

1. Lifehouse
2. Quadrophenia


......all the rest.

 

The Who Sell Out
My Generation
Tommy
A Quick One
Who's Next
Live at Leeds
Quadrophenia
The Who By Numbers
Who Are You?
It's Hard
Face Dances
Endless Wire

All up to and including By Numbers I rate very highly. As good as rock gets. There's also loads of fantastic non album stuff.

After that I find them relatively poor, flat and generally uninspired with the occasional highlight. I consider Who Are You a very overrated album. Aside from the title track its as mediocre as the albums after it and I think Love Is Coming Down is the worst Who song ever. But it gets nowhere near the criticism It's Hard and Face Dances get.

Fantastic catalogue overall though. The best rock band ever. As my list shows, the sixties is my favourite Who era.

 

Live at Leeds
Quadrophenia
get the most play these days.

 

Tommy
Who's Next
The Who Sell Out
A Quick One
My Generation
Live at Leeds
Who Are You
Face Dances
Quadrophenia
The Who by Numbers
It's Hard
Endless Wire

 

Who's Next
Meaty Beaty
Leeds
Tommy
Quadrophenia
Isle of Wight
Debut
Who Sell Out
Kids Are Alright
Odds and Sods (reissue)
Who By Numbers
Who Are You
A Quick One
Endless Wire
It's Hard

 

1. Who's Next is one of the top five single LP albums of the rock era.

2. Tommy is one of the great concept albums.

3-7. Quadrophenia, Face Dances, Who By Numbers, Who Are You, It's Hard all have some great songs.

 

1. Who's Next
2. Live At Leeds
3. Quadrophenia
4. The Who Sell Out
5. The Who By Numbers
6. My Generation
7. Tommy
8. A Quick One
9. Face Dances
10. Who Are You
11. It's Hard
12. Endless Wire

 

1. Quadrophenia
2. Who's Next
3. Tommy
4. The Who By Numbers
5. Who Are You
6. The Who Sell Out
7. My Generation
8. Live At Leeds
9. A Quick One
10. Face Dances
11. It's Hard
12. Endless Wire

 

Interesting, if you include official live CD's (not DVD only) albums - then apart from Live at Leeds - there is also

Live at Hull 1970
Isle of Wight 1970
Who's Last 1982
Live from Toronto 1982 (released 2006 on CD)
Join Together 1989
Blues to the Bush 1999
Royal Albert Hall 2001
Isle of Wight 2004
Quadrophenia Live in London 2014
Live in Hyde Park 2015
Tommy Live Royal Albert Hall 2017

and also

The BBC Sessions

 

Who’s next
Who by numbers
Live at Leeds
Tommy
Quad

 

1. Live At Leeds A+
2. Who's Next A+
3. Quadrophenia A
4. My Generation A
5. The Who Sell Out A-
6. Tommy A-
7. A Quick One B+
8. Who Are You B+
9. The Who By Numbers B+
10. It's Hard B-
11. Face Dances C+
12. Endless Wire C-

 

I own vinyl copies of all of these, more than one copy of many, plus CD's. I own six different versions of Who's Next.
Live albums and Meaty... omitted.

1. Who's Next (This is genius level stuff here.)
2. Quadrophenia (Beautiful, great to get lost in.)
3. Tommy (An album that most bands, had they recorded it, would never top.)
4. The Who Sell Out (This is when it starts to get good.)
5. The Who By Numbers (Listened to this a few months ago. It seems to get overlooked by many)
6. Who Are You (I could flip 6 and 7 but Who Are You has sentimental value to me.)
7. My Generation (Doesn't knock me out.)
8. Odds and Sods (Included because it added to the Lifehouse canon of recorded songs.)
9. A Quick One (It's ok.)
10. It's Hard (A few good songs.)
11. Endless Wire (Has a few moments and I find it more engaging than Face Dances.)
12. Face Dances (Still an album I might pull out once a year and listen to.)

There's about five Pete Townshend Solo (or with R. Lane) albums I would probably listen to before numbers 7 - 12 listed above.

 

Who's Next
Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy
Quadrophenia
Live At Leeds
Who Are You
The Kids Are Alright
The Who Sell Out
The Who Sings My Generation
Odds & Sods
Face Dances
It's Hard
Tommy
The Who By Numbers
A Quick One (Happy Jack)

All great albums! (not familiar with Endless Wire).

I left out Magic Bus, Rarities Vols. 1 & 2, Who's Missing and Two's Missing as I don't really think they're part of the canon.

 

1. The Who Sell Out
2. Who's Next
3. A Quick One

 

1. Who's Next
2. Quadrophenia
3. Live At Leeds
4. Tommy
5. The Who Sell Out
6. By Numbers
7. My Generation
8. A Quick One
9. Who Are You
10. It's Hard
11. Face Dances
12. Endless Wire

 

Honestly, almost every Who album is very good....and I'm not that big of a fan. Rolling Stones might be a better band, but they weren't as consistent as the who at making albums.

 

Quadrophenia
Who’s Next
Tommy
Live At Leeds
Who By Numbers
Who Are You
Who Sell Out
My Generation
A Quick One
Face Dances
It’s Hard
Endless Wire

 

This is tough for me because I really love their first 8. The last 3 albums The Who recorded are easily on the bottom.
But the rest of 'em? The difference between #1 and #8 in terms of how much I love them is pretty minimal.

*Note - I only ranked the studio albums. Leeds, Meaty, Odds/Sods, Kids/Alright OST are all obviously fantastic.

1. Tommy. My first Who album, so its my fave. An absolute classic.
2. Who's Next. Pretty much a perfect album.
3. The Who Sell Out. A joy to listen to - top to bottom.
4. Quadrophenia. An underrated classic.
5. My Generation. The Who may have disowned it, but I adore this album.
6. Who Are You. I love this album and its #6. Crazy.
7. The Who By Numbers. Incredibly underrated Who album.
8. A Quick One/Happy Jack. Doesn't quite stand up as well as the others, but its still very good.

9. Face Dances. The best of the final 3 in their discography, but its not classic Who. Still, not bad.
10. Its Hard. To be honest, not very memorable. Has a few good songs though.
11. Endless Wire. This feels like a Townshend solo effort with special guest Roger Daltrey. Don't care for it.

 

1. Who's Next
2. Quadrophenia
3. Tommy
4. Who Are You
5. The Who Sell Out
6. Face Dances
7. It's Hard
8. My Generation
9. A Quick One
10. The Who by Numbers
11. Endless wire

This is how I feel today on this, the only thing not subject to change is the #1 ranking.
I've always tended to like the Kenny Jones era better than most.

Face Dances- some really good songs with the Eagles producer Bill Szymz-jswqu-ick-hjk,
Less about the power than usual.

It's hard- A more apocalyptic feel, and back to the Glyn Johns sound.
I think people forget there are some pretty good tracks on this thing.
Entwistle delivers most of the rock, the best of his 3 being IMO "Dangerous".
Pete gets a little sentimental on side 2, but he has IMO 4 strong songs most should like with Athena/Eminence front/Cooks county/I've known no war.....

I like Odd n sods too.....Though not an original studio album, but a comp...
Thought a mention was in line..Like Leeds too..

 

It really IS horrendous. The one good track on it may as well be by Eric Clapton. In truth, it's a really hideous Townshend solo album, that he didn't even let Zak Starkey play drums throughout, but had the affrontery to call a Who album.