The Who Sell Out

Det føltes mindst tre gange så langt, som det egentlig var

2.2

Certainly of its time. Interesting, but not captivating

I’ve already gotten another The Who album and didn’t love it, so I went into this unsure of how I’d feel. But this is pretty fun to listen to. It feels like a blend of musical theatre, rock opera, and that good ol’ classic 60s rock sound. I liked it way more than I anticipated and am glad I didn’t skim it over!

A fine, but dumb, concept, whatever, that's rock 'n' roll sometimes - I don't like this shit b/c it's annoying e'en before it's pretentious. Folk who decry rock music for its annoyingness have a premier case in point w/ this record, a collection of songs that are as pointless as they are frustratingly heady & soulless. 'Flying, soaring / Shining morning / Never leaving / Lying, dying.' If I wanted British conceptual, I'd go for The Kinks before almost anyone - I just don't buy this group's attempt at sixties wit, like, wink, wink, what's the joke? 'I Can See For Miles' contains some classic Moon drumming, but its hook goes on for miles & miles, repetitive b/c Daltrey doesn't know how to write a good tune. Nope, not e'en close, The Who DID NOT presage punk.

By their third album The Who had ascended to their rightful place as one of the Holy Trinity of British Bands - Beatles, Stones and The Who.

Any album that contains Tattoo and I Can See For Miles has to be staking a claim and Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand is a filthy minded little ditty while Armenia City in the Sky is a perfect bit of effect laden Psychedelia (can we say "drugs" boys and girls?)
It does fall apart in the second half.
Rael is one of Townsend's attempts at writing a story through song that he'd lean into with Tommy. It's completely weird, but it does have the first appearance of several musical themes that would turn up in Tommy.

Silas Stingy is Entwhistle indulging his odd sense of humour.

Sunshine seems to be Townsend being deep and meaningful and ends up sounding like The Who sing Simon and Garfunkel.

The adverts, which many will just find annoying I guess, are, to anyone who listened to commercial radio in the sixties, deadpan accurate parodies of what radio actually sounded like.

The master pieces were still to come, but this is just about there.

Fuckin bullshit. 1.58

I never really liked The Who. I just don't get it. This record is annoying. I didn't enjoy any part of it.

4
Don't hate the radio ads concept but I just think the songs aren't quite as strong as my generation (two days ago haha), bar I can see for miles.

This is often very silly and often very cool. 3.5 but rounding up for pure inventiveness and self-awareness

I had no idea that The Who were at one point a psychedelic rock band. This is much, much more my thing than their hard rock stuff and puts my lack of exploration of the band to shame. There’s so much heart and soul on this record. The epic, restless I Can See For Miles is the high point (a new favourite song of mine) but I also loved the jingles and warm sense of humour (reflective of the cover art).

The Who Sell Out is a smart, funny (sort of) concept album. But the concept behind it does make it susceptible to flaws. The framework of this as a radio station with ads is really smart and unique, and honestly there's less reliance on this gimmick than I thought. But there are still several tracks that don't really hold up on their own. That, in combination with my preference being towards harder rocking iterations of The Who, as opposed to their psych stuff, does get in the way of The Who Sell Out in my eyes. But the result is *definitely* still a good album. I Can See For Miles is one of the band's best songs. And a lot of the more straightforward psych songs are a lot of fun; I'd like to highlight Armenia City In The Sky, Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand, and Tattoo in particular. I will also say this album is a little front-loaded. Side A is *much* better than side B, even though B is certainly not bad. The result is an album which is best appreciated for it's unique concept and creative execution, even if it occasionally gets in it's own way.

The cover tells you exactly what you’re getting — Pete Townshend sitting in a bathtub of baked beans, Roger Daltrey clutching a giant deodorant stick, both deadpan and ridiculous. The Who Sell Out is the band at their most playful and conceptually inventive, structured as a fake pirate radio broadcast complete with mock advertisements between songs. It’s a genuinely clever piece of pop art, and for a stretch it works beautifully.
The first half earns its reputation. The concept gives the record a specific texture and wit that distinguishes it from almost everything else in the 1967 landscape, and “I Can See for Miles” hits with a melodic authority that justifies its classic status. The fake ads are charming in the early going — absurdist, self-aware, and funny in a way that feels genuinely inventive rather than gimmicky.
The problem is time. The bright, bouncy vocal quality that gives the record its energy starts to blur into sameness across the full runtime, and the commercials that felt like inspired conceits in the first half become wearing interruptions by the finish line. The concept that creates the identity also creates the fatigue — a structural problem that a lot of ambitious records share.
A synchronicitous moment — the taxi track arriving during an actual Uber ride — offered a brief highlight near the end. Not quite enough to push it to four.
A fair three: inventive, occasionally charming, and ultimately a record that runs slightly longer than its best ideas.

I appreciate what they were going for but it just wasn't that fun to listen to

The only track I really enjoyed on here was Sunrise; the rest ranged from tedious to outright irritating. To say that this is far from The Who's best work would be an understatement.

Overrated

Fun concept, a fun listen, but largely feels like the band is screwing around and the big tracks are largely distant from the album as a whole. When 80% of the record feel like one-off half-joking demos it makes songs like "Maryanne" and "I Can See For Miles" feel like they would have been better suited on an EP.

The cover art might be better than the album.

The Who I like (and I am learning that is a very qualified phrase) is the windmilling guitar rock out Who. This is not that.
I Can See For Miles, is as good it gets. I appreciate it’s a concept, but the fake ads are just annoying

Oh that is a lot of The Who in one go. I generally like the *idea* of The Who much more than the reality. And this is The Who with ad breaks. Two tracks in and I was thinking you could already knock 5 minutes off the run time by eliminating both of them.

I am grateful at this point to have read Wikipedia and discovered the album was actually originally 39 minutes and not the 71 minutes Amazon was offering (or the 5 hours 41 minutes of the super deluxe version!).

I liked Odorono despite the fact it was about deodorant. And I liked I Can See for Miles. Ultimately the concept annoyed me so much it was hard to see past it to judge the songs however.

2/5

I can see for miles is great but it's mostly annoying