Who

A 180 gm vinyl Reissue complete with the poster. A one of a kind concept album. The Who at their best.

This is a brilliant album, with some great songs. As has been stated elsewhere the concept of the album is to ape pirate radio with jingles and mock adverts. Side one concludes with the brilliant I Can See for Miles. Keith Moon used to tell the story of a fan coming up to him when I Can See for Miles was in the charts as a single, “I love the hidden meanings in the song man” he said, to which Moon replied, deadpan “It’s just about a guy with really good eyesight.”I love everything about the record itself, great quality vinyl, sounds great; I can’t fault it. The cover is well reproduced with some obvious adaptations on the back; record label, barcode and so on. This is a nice poster included, albeit suffering from the need to fold it to fit into an album cover, but this relates to the reason why I nearly didn’t give this album five stars. There is a really nasty little sticker on the front of the cover, not on the film wrap but actually on the cover. What makes this unforgivable is that is is anything but easy peel. You don’t discover this, of course, until you have tried to peel it and thus you are left with a messy sticker still ther with a wrinkled edge.This remains one of my favourite Who albums after A Quick One and I still really love listening to The Who Sell Out on vinyl again but I am also glad that I also have the expanded CD version.I would rank The Who studio albums:1. A Quick One2. The Who Sell Out3. My Generation4. Quadrophenia5. Who’s Next6. Tommy7. The Who By Numbers8. Who Are You9. Face Dance10. It’s HardI don’t count Endless Wire

wow- totally blown away by this.though i am of their generation [yes, i know what you were expecting m-m-me to do there], i was more into british blues, and the stones.i never really listened to the who.i mean listened.my god they get a lot of words [and notes] into their songs. and meanings.i only bought it cos it was cheap, and i was vaguely curious- i was researching jingles of pirate stations like radio london, and of course dear old caroline when i saw this.mortified by what i have missed, i am now listening to as much who stuff as i can.i`m only 50 years too late, sigh...

THE WHO SELL OUT, The Who's third album, is one of those records which just gets better with age. Many albums from the 1960s and '70s seemed to have emerged as instant classics while others, like this one, have grown in stature with the passing years. Somewhat overlooked during the Christmas rush of 1967, today THE WHO SELL OUT stands as one of The Who's most enjoyable collections, an album which represented a tribute to the recently outlawed pirate radio ships (specifically Radio London) and the band's own last salute to the world of pop before The Who's graduation to the podium of rock royalty with TOMMY (1969). Above all, from the amusing pop art-inspired sleeve to the band's "Track Records" chant cut into the run-out groove, more than any of their other albums, THE WHO SELL OUT captures Shepherd's Bush's finest having fun.This is a fine vinyl reissue of THE WHO SELL OUT from Universal Music - the company that was responsible for a sumptuous Deluxe Edition CD version of the album a few years back. As expected with vinyl reissues these days, the record itself is nice and weighty and comes with relatively faithful reproductions of the Track Records' labels on both sides (the major difference being a new catalogue number). Audio purists will possibly take issue with the fact that the stereo mix has been used over the mono version; however, at the time of the album's original release, stereo was beginning to overtake mono in popularity and so deciding which is the "true" version of THE WHO SELL OUT is arguably an irrelevance (whereas many believe that the mono version of The Beatles' SGT. PEPPER - released just six months earlier - is the genuine format for that LP). Sound-wise, everything is fine, with the original Radio London jingle track-links and gentler songs like 'Tattoo' and 'Sunrise' sounding particularly nice. The hit single 'I Can See For Miles' also manages to cut through with power and presence. Finally, that iconic sleeve is all present and correct as is, thankfully, the Osiris-designed psychedelic poster that came with original copies of the LP. However, the sleeve does have a matt finish rather than the glossy, laminated look that was commonplace on British album covers from the 1960s and which the recent Beatles vinyl reissues have preserved.All in all, though, this is a great reissue of THE WHO SELL OUT and, at less than twenty-five quid (at the time of purchase), it comes considerably cheaper than trying to find a mint-condition original copy, complete with that poster!

A very underated album if ever there was. This produced at the time when mod was on the wane and Townsend was tiring of the 3 minute pop song although there are classics of that ilk on here. " I can see for miles" is the stand out track purely 'cos I"m a huge fan of Moon and this song thrust the drums to the forefront. I was also a huge fan of Wonderful Radio London so two for the price one here!

Having read through a lot of reviews/comments about this album, I find the accepted view to be, that it is a great album, comparable to their best and that this 'version' comes with some good, but not necessarily essential, bonus material.Oh, and there are even some people who don't like it.Well I actually count myself lucky that I came to this album only recently because it means my view of it wasn't skewed by familiarity with its much shorter former incarnation. I actually played it as is, unaware that the additional tracks had not been part of the original release.My impression was one astonishment. Why was this album not widely trumpeted as one of the greatest works of the sixties? Why was "Tommy" considered a better album? I was mystified. A double album(as it must have been judging by its length)of this quality would surely be included in all those 'Best Album...' lists.The truly amazing thing is the way that, although it is not a 'concept album' the music fits together to create an incredible barrage of striking imagery that all coalesces perfectly to create a 'whole' that really is greater than the sum of its parts. One of the strengths of the album is the lack(!) of well known tracks(the only one I knew beforehand was 'I Can See For Miles') this gives the record a lovely 'balanced feel'.I find it very strange, now that I am aware of the original track listing, to think that the album was ever released without 'Early Morning Cold Taxi', the stunning instrumental showcase 'Hall of the Mountain King' and perhaps the gem of the whole album 'Girl's Eyes'(a perfect and sympathetic depiction of the fixated fan/band relationship).It isn't the easiest "Who" album to like(it took me a few plays before it started to 'click'), and in this form there is so much more to digest than before, but I would suggest it has the potential to be the most rewarding long term listen of all their albums.