My Generation

5
Love The Who, and this was a great debut, feel like they don't get the respect they deserve because of the Stones and Beatles

Seemed mid

Not my favorite by these guys, but they were just starting out. For my personal taste it’s probably a 2.5 but I can happily round up to three stars for the song “My Generation” and for how good they sounded when rock was still in its early stages.

This is very much a mid 60s brit invasion rock album, but it’s a pretty good precursor to where the Who were going. Not their best but very good still

Fuck yeah

Quite charming and at times very good, butassively outstays it's welcome

A couple great tracks here and they do some of the better blues/R&B covers from this generation of Brits, excellent drumming throughout. Don't think it clicks as a full record for me but can't fault it

I was pleasantly surprised by much of this record; it sounds a lot more messy and garage-y than what I expected from my experience with later Who albums, none of which I particularly like. It's got a couple of James Brown covers and some other noisy stuff. I think it sounds a lot like 90s garage rock, though I recognize the absurdity of saying that, since it's 90s garage rock that sounds like records like this.

I thought I was going to be tempted to skip "My Generation" since it's been played to death in the intervening 60 (!) years, but it worked in context with the rest of the album. (Though now it's stuck in my head, which I kinda wish would just g- g- g- go away.)

I think 3?

Marked up for the bluesy numbers

A blend of blues rock with harder titles, it's understandable why it's considered a landmark album of rock'n'roll.

Favorite songs: I don't mind ; My Generation ; The Ox

I love Who's Next just as much, but it’s always a joy to hear this more unhinged, raw, and less polished version of that smart inferno that is My Generation.

Aside from a few duds (especially the first section of the Bo Diddly Cover “I Am a Man,” with its rather annoying vocals and a tad too uninspired shuffle intro - before it turns into this amazing, noisy, piano-led guitar freakout in the mid-section / also not a big fan of “I Don’t Mind”), this is an essential collection of songs that would become a blueprint for much of the college and indie rock of the ’80s and ’90s. Its influence still lingers, much like that of The Kinks, who in turn seemed to have been a massive influence on the band at the time of writing.

Much like The Beatles’ mid-’60s output, this record has an immediate impact upon listening, even though it’s a far more visceral affair. Some of the hooks here are incredible - easily matching The Beatles in quality. I mean, honestly: how many bands would leave off a brilliant cut like “I Can’t Explain"?

Their first album, and it shows.

It's a scattering approach with covers an instrumental, and original songs a couple of which are as good as anything they ever did.

The anthem, of course, is My Generation, with its fuck you chorus of "Hope I die before I get old", Entwhistle's kamikaze bass line, Moon's "just hit anything" drumming and Townsend's self destructing guitar solo. Daltrey sings over the top of it all with supreme arrogance. It's the song that defined them and the beginning of Punk.

Then you have Daltrey indulging his love of Soul Music with not one, but two James Brown Covers. Perhaps they thought if they did two they'd double their chances of getting one right. They don't.

"The Kids are Alright" is another great moment. Chiming guitars and the first of Townsend's songs about men who seem lost, which would come to fruition in Quadrophenia.

The other original songs are a mixed bag. La-La-La Lies is more pop than rock. It's good pop, but you don't think of The Who (Maximum R&B) recording songs that The Monkees could sing.

Much too much is another of Townsend's broken men, complaining that he can't cope with how much his girl loves him.

It's not true is probably the least of the originals, almost a joke about a man denying all sorts of outrageous rumours.

There two songs about relationships ending. A Legal Matter has a young man who can't commit as the central figure. "Sorry baby," he sneers as he goes back to the pub and dumps the idea of marriage.

Then there's Good is Gone, about a relationship that's gone sour and sung by Daltrey in a sneer John Lydon would be proud of. It's a threat more than anything else.

And finally, there's The Ox, a bass solo jam that's loose and wild with everyone (including a guesting Nicky Hopkins) going berserk and Townsend coaxing a series of howls and yelps out of his guitar that probably had never been put on record before.

Is it a great record? Well, no. But when it's good it really is very good. And they'd only get better.

Some Beatles esque harmony. But patchy

Favorite track(s): The Good's Gone, My Generation, The Kids Are Alright, The Ox

Heard before
Previous rating: 7/10

Better than Coldplay

My Generation is stand out of a very boring album.

bump because my generation is so iconic, but that cover of I'm a man . . .smh

Surprisingly ok.

Great stuff - pretty heavy for 1965!

Half the album had me tapping my toes and impressed with the blues-y nature of the songs, and half of the album was annoying and sounded like the Beatles and Buddy Holly had a baby. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it - and I thought I was going to hate it.

Sounds like a 3.