Browse Music
Rock & Pop
R&B & Hip-Hop
Country
Blues
Jazz
Classical
Latin
Christian
Soundtracks
Collections
The Who
Who's Next (Remastered)
The Who:  Who's Next (Remastered)

$6.99
AMG Top Pick Listen

Album Review

Released: 1971
Label: MCA
Selection #: 113215
A hard-driving rock classic--now with seven bonus tracks! Won't Get Fooled Again, Baba O'Riley, Behind Blue Eyes, Bargain, My Wife, Goin' Mobile, Water, more.
Listen RM WM
1 Baba O'Riley
2 Bargain
3 Love Ain't for Keeping
4 My Wife
5 The Song is Over
6 Getting in Tune
7 Going Mobile
8 Behind Blue Eyes
9 Won't Get Fooled Again
10 Pure and Easy [#]
11 Baby Don't You Do It [#]
12 Naked Eye [Live]
13 Water [Live][#]
14 Too Much of Anything
15 I Don't Even Know Myself
16 Behind Blue Eyes [#]
  
Download Player:    Real Media Real Media    Windows Media Windows Media
Album Review

Much of "Who's Next" derives from "Lifehouse", an ambitious sci-fi rock opera Pete Townshend abandoned after suffering a nervous breakdown, caused in part from working on the sequel to "Tommy". There's no discernable theme behind these songs, yet this album is stronger than "Tommy", falling just behind "Who Sell Out" as the finest record the Who ever cut. Townshend developed an infatuation with synthesizers during the recording of the album, and they're all over this album, adding texture where needed and amplifying the force, which is already at a fever pitch. Apart from "Live at Leeds", the Who have never sounded as LOUD and unhinged as they do here, yet that's balanced by ballads, both lovely ("The Song Is Over") and scathing ("Behind Blue Eyes"). That's the key to "Who's Next" -- there's anger and sorrow, humor and regret, passion and tumult, all wrapped up in a blistering package where the rage is as affecting as the heartbreak. This is a retreat from the '60s, as Townshend declares the "Song Is Over," scorns the teenage wasteland, and bitterly declares that we "Won'T Get Fooled Again." For all the sorrow and heartbreak that runs beneath the surface, this is an invigorating record, not just because Keith Moon runs rampant or because Roger Daltrey has never sung better or because John Entwistle spins out manic bass lines that are as captivating as his "My Wife" is funny. This is invigorating because it has all of that, plus Townshend laying his soul bare in ways that are funny, painful, and utterly life-affirming. That is what the Who was about, not the rock operas, and that's why "Who's Next" is truer than "Tommy" or the abandoned "Lifehouse". Those were art -- this, even with its pretensions, is rock & roll. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Back To Top
About This Artist
Biography


Other albums by: The Who
The Who:  Endless Wire Listen The Who
Endless Wire

$6.99

The Who:  BBC Sessions Listen The Who
BBC Sessions

$6.99

The Who:  30 Years Of Maximum R&B Listen Boxed Set The Who
30 Years Of Maximum R&B

$27.96 4-CD Set

more
Related Artists
Roger Daltrey
Pete Townshend
Aerosmith
Bachman Turner Overdrive
Badfinger
The Beach Boys
The Beatles
Chuck Berry
Boston
David Bowie
more

Any reproduction, publication, further distribution, or public exhibition of materials provided at this site, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.
©2006 All Media Guide, LLC
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC