The Who

The Who worked past some fierce infighting to cut this 1978 LP, which was the biggest seller of their career but not their best work. Pete Townshend takes his fascination with long, complex songs to the limit, but his success ratio is lower than before. Still, the title track is a complete knockout, and "Sister Disco" is underrated. Keith Moon died after this one.

This is by no means a great record, but despite the doubt, guilt, worry and self-laceration
in almost every song, it's a strangely confident one. Again and again, the persona is that of
the cripple, the victim of disaster, but Who Are You is not the work of cripples, no matter
how many breakdowns and bottles the Who have left on their fourteen-year-old trail.
Certainly, the album kicks in slowly. The tunes lack a natural, kinetic groove (Jo... More >

Every time I concentrate I get off on some new detail in Daltrey's singing or Townshend's lyrics or Entwistle's bass parts--though not in Moon's drumming, and I still don't relate to the synthesizer. But I never learn anything new, and this is not my idea of fun rock and roll. It ought to be one or the other, if not both. (Grade - B+)