#1146 The Who - A Quick One

Over the course of their first three albums these guys made the transition from also-ran British R&B revivalists all the way through into offkilter artrockers, a balance they'd bounce back and forth on for their whole career. This second album's at the crest of that first wave: you get some pretty traditional stompy stuff like Don't Look Away and Run Run Run, but you also get mad stuff like Boris the Spider and the galloping, careening Cobwebs and Strange, to say nothing of the weird, meandering tale of A Quick One, While He's Away. It's a messy listen that doesn't quite hold together, lacking the thrills of My Generation or Who's Next, and the epic scope of Quadrophenia or (the wildly overrated) Tommy, but definitely worth hearing if you've got even a passing interest in the band 3.5/5