The Who never had peaks and valleys in their career. To this
\nday, Pete Townshend can windmill out excellent riffs and Roger
\nDaltrey believes what he is singing. No, the Who’s peaks and
\nvalleys occured within their albums, leading to works of art that
\nare alternately frustrating and jaw-dropping.<\/p>\n
Nowhere is this more evident than the Who’s second double album
\nand second rock opera,
\nQuadrophenia<\/i>. After
\nTommy<\/i> broke new ground and
\nLifehouse<\/i> was shortened into the excellent
\nWho’s Next<\/i> album, the group decided to celebrate both the
\nEnglish rock scene and their own distinct ersonalities in the
\nframework of a young mod named Jimmy.<\/p>\n
The plot is simple: a teenager named Jimmy comes of age in the
\nmidst of a struggle between mods and rockers in England. The four
\nsides of Jimmy’s personality reflect the characteristics of the
\nfour Who band members, which is not evident to the casual fan but
\nhelps the lyrics make more sense to someone who delves into Who
\nhistory. In fact, this is a celebration of history, a look back to
\nmod culture and a look forward to where rock was going, both
\nartistically and culturally.<\/p>\n
On the plus side, there is not a filler song on here. Unlike
\nTommy<\/i>, the songs here advance the plot or kill time with
\nexcellent instrumental interplay that prove the Who was the
\nthird-best British invasion band (or second, if you are not a
\nStones fan). On the minus side, there are so many times Entwistle
\nand Moon can go crazy on their instruments before it gets old, and
\nby the final three songs, one just wants the band to get to the
\npoint and calm down.<\/p>\n
The first few songs are wonderful, some of the best in the Who
\ncanon. “Real Me” is a workout for bass-player wannabes everywhere,
\na driving song that showcased everything the Who did right. It is
\nfollowed by the instrumental title track, a sort of overture that
\nsets the tone for the rest of the album. Other standouts include
\nthe mini-story “Punk Meets the Godfather” and the alternating
\nheaviness and acoustic strumming in “I’ve Had Enough,” with
\nunderstated keyboard work and cymbal flourishes that help elevate
\nthe song. But “I’m One” and “Is It In My Head?” are pretty bland,
\nwhile “Dirty Jobs” and “Cut My Hair” illustrate the overkill Moon
\ntook to nearly every song on this album.<\/p>\n
This becomes clear in “Sea and Sand” and “Drowned” on side 2.
\nInstead of just keeping a good beat, Moon punctuates every silence
\nwith a loud drum fill, never stopping once to let the other three
\nspeak. By the middle of “Bell Boy,” I wanted to tie his hands
\nbehind his back and let the other three work their magic. His
\ninsistent pounding ruins otherwise solid songs, of which there are
\nmany on both sides.<\/p>\n
This is one of the few double albums where the second platter is
\nas arresting as the first. Both “5:15” and “Love, Reign O’er Me”
\nare classic rock staples, with good reason, while “Rock” is another
\ngood instrumental and “Drowned” is actually good, if one can get
\npast the drums. Only “Dr. Jimmy” warrants a skip button, with
\ndisturbing lyrics about rape. That wasn’t necessary, Townshend.<\/p>\n
But it would be a shame to fault a band for being too good –
\nafter all, Yes and Genesis produced some of the best music of the
\n70s when they reined in their tendencies to meander. Townshend and
\ncompany create a better rock opera than their first and create some
\nof the best songs in their history. Just don’t be surprised if you
\ncan’t listen to it all the way through in one sitting — thanks to
\nMoon and a couple of boring songs, it’s a little too much of a good
\nthing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":26837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5649],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38124","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-who","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38124"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38124"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}