90. The Who — The Who Sell Out (1967)
Published in
2 min readAug 20, 2020
- Been awhile since we had a truly spectacular piece of album art, and holy cow, The Who Sell Out’s album cover is spectacular. Pop art brilliance, and the perfect piece of satire for the album it displays.
- The Who Sell Out is a really cohesive work, structured as a broadcast by pirate radio station Radio London, complete with jingles and fake commercials interspersed between the actual songs (a structure that calls to mind 21st century hip hop album skits). Those jingles and fake commercials slide in between a series of very solid Who songs. We don’t get anything on the level of their earlier “My Generation,” and we’re not yet to the rest of their megahits, but there are few if any poor songs on this album.
- Oddly, perhaps the strongest song wasn’t written by the band — album opener “Armenia City In The Sky” is a spacey stunner, an anthemic burst of energy (also may have been intended to be “I’m An Ear Sitting In The Sky”? Unclear). The biggest actual hit on the record, “I Can See For Miles,” feels like a hint of the direction the Who eventually will end up going, and it’s excellent. A Townsend solo tune holds down the quieter side of things, as “Sunrise” is a lovely, genuinely romantic song.
- There’s really nothing bad here, as long as the presence of the skits doesn’t bug you (and it’s truly meant to be listened to as an album — the “Radio London” jingles are included within the tracks of actual songs). The songs themselves don’t follow a define message, instead representing the whims of a radio DJ; but as an album, it presents a unified front and serves as an excellent concept album.
One Essential Song:
Listen on Spotify:
