The Who's Masterpiece?

I say Quadro because nothing is as spectacular as when I Am The Sea segues into The Real Me: "Can you see the real me?"

 

The Who Sell Out

 

The Who Sell Out

 

I'm not going to say that ' By Numbers' is The Who's masterpiece but it is the album I most seriously underestimated.
It was the follow up to the amazing ' Quadrophenia' and I found it lightweight and slight at first.
Set it aside for a few years and didn't give it much thought.
But then one day I put it on and was blown away by how good it actually is.

 

All of the above.

 

For me the early singles. They really brought something new to the table.

 

Quadrophenia....it isn't perfect, but for my money, it has more of an emotional wallop than the other albums....and that is what counts...
The Who Sells Out and Who's Next are both wonderful, but for depth... Quadrophenia....movie is excellent as well

 

Tommy. The Who has many triumphs, but Tommy is the most impressive. The chord progressions/melodies/plot represent Townshend’s peak as a writer IMO. In terms of live performance, Tommy is absolute peak live Who.

 

Who's Next, but I could have easily gone with Sell Out.

 

There is no one masterpiece.

Tim

 

It isn't perfect but...
Man , what an album! Big and ambitious and loaded with Townshend guitars and Moon's pounding . Daltrey and Entwhistle ain't slouching either.

 

"Thomas"

 

The concept of Tommy doesn't grab me like Quadrophenia's does, BUT I do like listening to Tommy in surround sound, wonderful....!!

 

Quadrophenia. The greatest double of all time in my opinion as well.

 

Who’s Next.
Townsend couldn’t fully realise his Life house project but it’s a brilliant album.

 

Only two votes for Tommy so far? I'm very surprised. I love Tommy and all these albums but I voted for Sell Out. It's my favourite era and 1967 is one of the strongest years for rock music. It captures them as their music was getting more diverse and intricate, a track like Sunrise wasn't on their previous albums, but before the elaborate double concept albums, pretentiousness and arena rock set in. That's all great stuff but The Who become so much more serious and less light-hearted after Sell Out.

 

Live at Leeds

 

Live at Leeds for me!

I know that sounds blasphemous but this was my first exposure to The Who. The live version of Magic Bus is sublime!

 

Yes, By Numbers is unfairly overshadowed by what came first. I love it too.

 

I voted Sell Out, but obviously a case can be made for any of these, plus Leeds.

Bottom line: What a run of consecutive albums!

 

Next!

 

It’s hard

 

Quadrophenia. I love all their original run of albums (with Moon) but it's not even close.

 

The Moon years.