On the Who's final album with Keith Moon, their trademark honest power started to get diluted by fatigue and a sense that the group's collective vision was beginning to fade. As instrumentalists, their skills were intact. More problematic was the erratic quality of the material, which seemed torn between blustery attempts at contemporary relevance ("Sister Disco," "New Song," "Music Must Change") and bittersweet insecurity ("Love Is Coming Down"). Most problematic of all were the arrangements, heavy on the symphonic synthesizers and strings, which make the record sound cluttered and overanxious. Roger Daltrey's operatic tough-guy braggadocio in particular was beginning to sound annoying on several cuts. Yet Pete Townshend's better tunes -- "Music Must Change," "Love Is Coming Down," and the anthemic title track -- continued to explore the contradictions of aging rockers in interesting, effective ways. Whether due to Moon's death or not, it was the last reasonably interesting Who record. The 1996 CD reissue adds five previously unreleased alternate takes and demos. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Track List
(try tracks 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10,11 and 12)
Have this in vinyl -the record was see-thru red vinyl (never saw another like it). Not their best LP but worth keeping to this day. The Who were part of the original British Invasion. Pete is a great writer and Keith Moon was fun to watch. Best songs "Who are You?" & "Had Enough", but PLEASE I never want to hear "Sister Disco" again!Living through thr Disco Era was bad enough!
I love The Who. memorized all their's and Townshend's albums. Seen them live 4 times. They got me through high school.
But, I can't get into this one. Besides 905, Sister Disco, and Who Are You, I don't like this album. Now, any album with any of those 3 songs would worth getting, but for a Who album those other 6 are pretty weak.
I can remember listening to this album in the 80's and liking parts of it...now that I've aged there isn't a part of the album/cd I don't like. It is a great piece of work no matter what Richie above says. "Problematic?" Please! It was an album of it's time but more than that, IT IS TIMELESS.