#0090: The Who - Sell Out [***]

I am a fan of The Who insomuch as my brother was obsessed with the Tommy film when it came out.  He had a compilation album called The Story of The Who and that had all the biggies from the back catalogue.  I don't remember him having anything pre 1970 tho.  It was just Quadrophenia, Tommy, The Kids Are Alright.  So those are what I know.

This I'd never heard.  It's a cheeky little album.  In between the songs there are these radio jingle parodies and the album actually opens with one  - sort of.  It put a smile on my face immediately.

It is no surprise to me to discover that when the songs start, they have memorable melodies, an infectious nature on the grooves and that driving momentum on the rockier tracks.  The band have their own distinct harmonic sound that is clearly distinguishable from The Beatles, The Beach Boys, etc and that's only one of the things that puts The Who in the rundown of Greatest Bands Of All Time.

There is that quintessential Who-ness about all of the songs that makes me feel like I already know them.  Tattoo, for example is reminiscent of I'm A Boy but if you played them next to each other, you wouldn't say they sounded the same.  At all.

Exactly on the halfway mark, the bar gets kicked up a good few notches.  Even on compilations, I Can See For Miles is a stand out track.  I don't know if it was an experiment staying on the same note and finding all the chords that harmonised it but it provides a thrilling crescendo for the already trademark, chuckachangtastic verses dripping with those confrontational lyrics.  The song manages to keep raising the peak up to a harmonic finale that just knocks me senseless.

But if you thought the bar was set too high, that impudent jingle pops in and relieves the tension.  Devious bastards!

After this point, tho it does get a bit samey.  There's nothing wrong with the songs that a few more listens won't fix but this is about first reactions.  The latter half just isn't as strong.  Medac is another of those faux advertisements but it's too long and feels more like a song they (he?) was unable to finish and so they just dumped it on here disguised as a joke.

Silas Stingy is just stupid but it has the words "there goes mingey stingey" in it so, y'no, there's that.

I'm relieved they dropped the gimmicks for the last two tracks.  Sunrise is an exquisite piece.  I dare say there's a few guitarists who have focused their attention on cracking this one with as much wide eyed ambition as Blackbird or Never Going Back Again.

It was lumpy there for a bit but we've got to the last track in pretty good shape. Rael 1 is sort of a surreal bit of social commentary as a miniature epic, to coin an oxymoron.  It didn't start well for me, but then it picks up considerably and I'm sure the riffs used he then went on to deploy in Tommy.  Amazing Journey?  Yet I don't feel critical of that.  It's like watching Better Call Saul and hearing him say "S'all good man."

Yeah, this is a tidy album but it's not a four.