QUADROPHENIA

Well, this is the Big One! Although not as balanced as WHO'S NEXT, QUADROPHENIA is beyond doubt the Who's most symphonic album, and for that reason alone it definitely deserves five stars.

Heavy rock numbers like "The real me" and "The punk and the godfather" sound as triumphant as anything the Who ever recorded, while songs like "I am one" and "I've had enough" perfectly encapsulate adolescent despair.

From a progressive point of view, it's worth considering Pete Townshend based QUADROPHENIA on four leitmotifs, each representing one of the musicians in the band. Two of these motifs are first sung by Roger Daltrey at the very beginning of the album, and all four are developed instrumentally in the title track. They receive their most exuberant treatment on the original 'fourth side' of the album (tracks 5 - 7 of the second disc), where they are sandwiched between the glorious (but desperate) "Dr Jimmy" (which makes superb use of John Entwistle's brass) and the exultant "Love reign o'er me", which has never been matched, as conclusion for an album, by any prog band I can think of.

Apart from his trademark guitar, Pete Townshend employes synths liberally on this album, to provide an appropriate orchestral feel, and some of the sounds he uses may now have dated, but this does not diminish, in my view, the sheer power of this extraordinary album. The wild crescendo on the drums at the end of "Love reign o'er me" is one of Keith Moon's best moments: his last truly great performance in the recording studio.