The Who -- Quadrophenia

8/10

The Who's Quadrophenia is noteworthy for me personally for several reasons: 

It's probably the first time I saw boobs, which occurred while I was turning through the vinyl album version's large booklet as a young lad. It's also the first time I became aware of the "concept album," as Quadrophenia attempts to tell to a story from beginning to end. The details of the story, centering around a disillusioned young man named Jimmy, are kind of silly, and involve split-personalities, among other things. However, the story at its core is about someone searching for something, so deep down, it still hits.

The music backing this story is classic Who, with all four members hitting on all cylinders--Townshend's freewheeling guitar, warbly synths, and gentle secondary vocals, John Entwistle's dexterous bass-playing, Keith Moon's hyperactive, fill-heavy drumming, and Roger Daltrey's gruff, yet emotional and polished lead vocals. Unfortunately, though, chief songwriter, Pete Townshend, focused so hard on the album working conceptually, the individual songs here aren't nearly as good on average as the ones found on their previous album, Who's Next. 

As a whole, though, despite some pacing issues, and the album perhaps going on two or three songs too long, Quadrophenia works. It works as a fine display of each member's instrumental talents, it works as a showcase of Townshend's high-concept aspirations (I love the way he creates a recurring motif for all four band members here), and at a core level, it works as a concept album, building up to an incredible catharsis, as the desperate Jimmy swims out to a rock in the middle of the sea and weighs ending his life versus trying to keep going, on the monumental "Love, Reign o'er Me." Though I like Who's Next more as an album than Quadrophenia, "Love, Reign o'er Me" is my favorite Who song, and one of my favorite songs, period. It is beautiful, highly emotional, features one of the greatest rock vocals of all time by Daltrey, and a crashing ending, featuring a final resolute note (and a set of tubular bells tipped over by Moon) that has the same effect as the closure-bringing A-note at the end of The Beatles "A Day in the Life." The way that the album keeps musically hinting at "Love, Reign o'er Me" throughout, before cathartically exploding with it at the end, makes the song work all the better. So while Quadrophenia may not be my favorite Who album, it's still a part of my musical bedrock, and one I quite enjoy.

1973 Track/MCA
1. I Am the Sea 2:09
2. The Real Me 3:21
3. Quadrophenia 6:14
4. Cut My Hair 3:45
5. The Punk and the Godfather 5:11
6. I'm One 2:38
7. The Dirty Jobs 4:30
8. Helpless Dancer 2:34
9. Is It in My Head? 3:44
10. I've Had Enough 6:15
11. 5:15 5:01
12. Sea and Sand 5:02
13. Drowned 5:28
14. Bell Boy 4:56
15. Doctor Jimmy 8:37
16. The Rock 6:38
17. Love, Reign o'er Me 5:49