Tommy

Far more interlude material than I thought there would be! It does drag, but not without good reason. It really does try to pace itself to tell a STORY. So I can appreciate just the scale of what it's going for, but not something I'll readily go back to. And Pinball Wizard is very very good. I forgot just how good especially the bass playing. Fiddle About, still horribly uncomfortable. Definetely an album of odd mixes.

I quite liked it.

Really like the sound. Interesting album. Not many real hits but I do like it.

070626 19:38 3

9/10 even though I find this album a little exhaustingly repetitive, it’s still such a masterpiece of rock, and an amazing soundtrack to a fantastic movie

Good songs, some good recurring themes, a weird mix of lengths (ranging from silly ditties to epic suites). While I liked some individual songs a lot, the album as a whole didn't grab me. Might need another listen, but I've got hundreds of others to go.

Beautiful story, and wonderful music. Love an album that feels like a piece of art rather than a bunch of songs, and this definitely delivers

This is terrible

I like this album alot I love the swings it takes I love the vibe and the fact it's a concept album However it's just far far too long I think there's a 5 star album in here But for me this scrapes a 4

Heel coole plaat, goeie songs ook. Ik kende 'm niet echt, behalve Pinball Wizard natuurlijk, maar 't staat vol goeie 60's tracks, 1921, Christmas, Sally Simpson,... Mssch had het hier en daar wat gebalder gekund, maar zelfs de psychedelische Underture trip vind ik heel goed. Very nice.

This is like The Wall if The Wall was actually a good concept album. Not every song is perfect but interesting concept and lots of good tunes to boot.

Am Supposed to listen to the Super Deluxe version? Overture: what are those horns? The trombone is not doing it for me. It sounds comical. but i could come around I think. Pretty well produced so far. High production value. I take it these guys are british? I honestly don't know much about them. the horn near the end has defintley been manipultaed. damn that gong went on for a long time. He's being born? It's a boy: weird to cut this in half? seems like an extension of the last song. 1921: this is a origin story. gasslighting a little boy? Amazing Journey: wow nice vibe change. I kind of like this. Can't quite understand the concept just yet but I don't hate. Sparks: i love the unhinged guitar. cool. a little bit experimental. Eyesight to the blind: smh omg. daddy what? of course we have to leave the concept to objectify a woman. oh she can heal you too? le sigh gotta have that one guaranteed hit i guess. Christmas: a christmas song in the middle of the album. Whut... i guess it could go with the concept of youth. tommy? I like this. this is good shit. heaven's generousity a dream. damnn Cousin Kevin: the key changes are weird. Damn this is dark. kids are bitches sometimes i'll give them. this is straight fire. that chorus was fireeeeee... this might go on my favorites. this is good. The Acid Queen: another evil woman right? kind of weird to sing from the woman's perspective: a little transversive you might even say. but it's still another song about an evil woman. so fucking boring. just give me one night? what the fuck. I really don't like this song, this is fucked up and not in the good way. Underture: like overture but under? alright... something better justify this 10 minute long track. other than just vibes. yeah this is def the end of this side of the LP. but also this is going on way too long. smh. Do you think it's alright?: so he's a teenager now? okay I get it. I'm not sure when it happened but it's def happened. Fiddle About: what the fuck??????? excuse me???? what the fuck??? omg what the fuck??????? damnnn okay... jesus christ Pinball Wizard: omg I cannot imagine where it will go next. this is the most listened to song on spotify from this album. this is very chilling after the last one. I don't know what to think about this? why do people like this? it doesn't really stand out to me. okay... seems random as all hell. There's a Doctor: okay so he needs fixing now? Go to the Mirror!: so now he's adopting the deaf dumb and blind persona? the doctor doesn't know what to do either. wait so is he the deaf dumb and blind person in the pinball story. He feels completely isolated from the world around him? wait so he's cured now? there is a perspective change in this one? Tommy can you hear me?: damm this is one long album. sooo he's not cured. ooo i like the ending. that's cool. Smash the mirror: I don't understand the relationship between the narrator and tommy? are they the same person? this is a good track though. Sensation: wait is this about drugs? it's probably drugs, this makes sense. drugs awaken him.. got it. def drugs. Miracle cure: he's cured got it. Sally Simpson: destiny intense. so sally is trying to seduce tommy? this says america too though. damn that's rough for sally. Tommy is a preacher now? he's in a uniform now too. This is a great song too by the way. I'm rivited. no not drugs: God? damn that mom is harsh. whoof... straight fire song though. I'm Free: so is he the messiah or not? I'm not sure I'm completely following the plot. but this is still fire. Welcome: so now he's inviting people into his world? I'm not sure. I like the switch up in the middle. he's spreading the gospel that's for sure Tommy's holiday camp: this is camp. We're not Gonna Take It: so def god and not drugs. take what? damnnn. this is real dark. this is great stuff. def god. I'm going to have to listen to this again. I didn't get all of it for sure. the instrumentals are not the most interesting but they definitely still add something. Not perfect but still great. Worst track: eyesight to the blind best track: Sally Simpson

One Hit but the rest is not quite convincing.

It's a rock opera, so you would think it would sound dated. But for me, these tracks are still fresh.

I can see why it's a monumental album, but it's not for me.

The Who is a great band and 'Tommy' certainly shaped the subgenre of the rock opera. Not so sure that it works though because I find many tracks to similar. Great is that the band really works very well together. You don't hear it as a Pete Townsend composition but as an collective effort to tell a story.

Zu anspruchsvoll in Text bzw. Message für meinen Geschmack - vermutlich auch der Zeit geschuldet

LOVE LOVE LOVE one of my absolute favourite albums ever.

I don't know if this was the first 'rock opera' but in its brilliance it certainly set a high bar for any comparisons within the genre.

Ok

Very quirky and interesting story. At times it feels like it leaves you hanging a bit, like there are missing parts to the script. But it also creates intrigue. Good stuff.

nope

Cool

very groovy, liked it a lot

treat yourself by listening to this album (esp in order) - 4.5/5

Rock operas aren't very good.

It’s good honestly hasn’t aged too well compared to other who albums though. Missing the *angst* of Leeds and missing the songwriting on Who’s next. Also the concept is kinda silly

I really enjoyed this one! I love any album that tries to tell a story, so I was very excited when I saw that this is one of the first ever rock operas. I wasn’t totally amazed by it, but most albums don't on first listen. It’ll probably take a couple more to really appreciate this album as much as I should. And I have to mention the album cover, I don’t know if I’ve even seen it before but it’s beautiful. Love it. What a dark story though, in contrast to the album cover. My top 5 may very well change in the future, too. They’re all quite good. 8/10 Top 5: 1. Pinball Wizard 2. 1921 3. Christmas 4. Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker) 5. Go To The Mirror!

Whohhoh

nice

The first time I remember heating Tommy was in the early 1990s. Back then we were exploited Columbia House and BMG to get CDs for cheap and my dad upgrading vinyl LPs. So Tommy arrives and it gets put on our fancy CD player with dual cassette deck. I'd never heard any music like it, not only Keith Moon's insane drumming but music that told a story. I'd never heard of opera of course much less rock-opera so my mind was blown! I followed along with the Liner notes and enjoyed it allot. Later I would hear Quadrophenia and be even more blown away. I also was thinking just yesterday that I'm 335 albums in and nothing by The Who yet. I'm glad that's been corrected!

Awful

A good album, but very pretentious. For every excellent Christmas there's an indulgent Underture, but on the whole it's a strong work. One thing though - where's the book, Pete?

Really odd listening to this after knowing the film soundtrack so well. Still some banging tracks, don't see how anyone could possibly make sense of this version but fun nonetheless

Love Pinball Wizard. Fun concept, decent execution.

TOMMY CAN YOU HEAR ME?

Bah ouais c’est cool surtout le film

As a lover of musicals I’m prone to like this. Which I do! While none of the individual songs outside of “Overture” and “Pinball Wizard” I have a desire to listen to on their own I can’t deny being swept up in the rock opera when listening to the full thing. The movie is wild too. 4/5

Pretty good album but not the best rock opera I’ve ever heard.

Can imagine this was amazing to experience in person, still a fun listen regardless.

Has Pinball Wizard on it, and a cool concept, but lacks in other songs I’d seek out to listen to again.

Ok. Pinball Wizard rocks. I think I would enjoy this more if I were watching the musical/movie.

One great track (Pinball Wizard) The rest is just kinda meh and didn't age well... I did also enjoy the overture and underture tracks. I HAVE to mark this down for "Tommy's Holiday Camp" it's terrible. 54 seconds of pure garbage...

Niet echt een the who fan, wel veel bekende tunes

While this album has some great and memorable songs, it also has some dull stretches. The section Sensation and Tommy’s Holiday Camp is pretty bleh. Favorite tracks are Sparks, Underture, and Go to the Mirror!

Great album, with some high points and low points. Appreciate the themes and rock opera nature of it.

You have to be in the right mood to listen to a rock opera and it was good that I was. A very lush and complex album, The Who paint a great story. Pinball Wizard is still the stand out track but a very enjoyable listen all round

No one except maybe Jack Bruce or let’s be fair the Beatles had more musical ambition in mainstream rock music at the time. And no one but Townshend had the balls to try. This is an insane mess - his first really successful attempt at an opera based on rock music. He’d tried before but ‘Rael’ and ‘a quick one while he’s away’ are more throat clearing. Utter garbage like that P F sparrow thing is nowhere near this. And really of the dozens and dozens of rock operas that follow, it’s only this, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joe’s Garage and The Wall that go close to really achieving artistic success. And of the five this is the best. Sure Joe’s Garage goes a bit insane (it is Zappa after all). And the Wall does too. Superstar was probably more shocking at the time but holds up musically. The Who’s manager at the time, Kit Lambert, was the estranged son of noted conductor and composer Constant Lambert and went into rock to annoy his father. He assured Townshend that none of the great operas had plots that made any sense. Add in something about Townshend guru and you have a demented masterpiece. But a deaf dumb and blind pinball champion, English holiday camps. The acid queen. Cousin kevin. Uncle fricking Ernie. Could you even BE a financially successful pinball champion? The only thing that makes this album a bit saner is the incredibly demented movie. The themes, the lyrics, the structures all make sense, even if the plot doesn’t. Pinball wizard, with its chord progression based on Purcell rocks as hard as the Cream, the stones, and zeppelin. See me, feel me, is a gorgeous ballad. Reading the wiki article, I read that Molly Meldrum played uncle Ernie in an Australian production in 1971 with Darryl Braithwaite as Tommy. It just keeps getting more demented. Entwhistle is magic. Moon is on fire. Daltrey is starting to find the voice that would power Who’s Next. And this is possibly Townshends finest moment. Though he still has Who's Next and Quadrophenia to come this lays the groundwork for so much. This is really musical DNA for me. So 10/5

Tommy landed between The Who Sell Out (1967) & Who’s Next (1971) & I have to say I’d rather listen to either of those albums than Tommy. I think I recently discussed the difficulty of double albums & so-called rock oera double albums. I gave this a listen yesterday & it’s weathered the 54 years since it’s birth a little better than I’d anticipated, but I’m unlikely to ever play it again. For me, Tommy represents Daltrey in his fringed jacket, twirling the microphone as he sings See Me, Feel Me at Woodstock (where the band performed the bulk of the album); Tina Turner delivering Acid Queen in the bloated Ken Russell version of Townshend’s work; and Pinball Wizard, a worthy single.

While I admire Pete Townshend's ambition to extend the rock and roll form into something larger and more intellectually challenging than to 2-3 minute single, the rock opera is a detestable and loathsome thing. This is one the first examples of the form, and one of the best realised, and I recognize the importance and influence of the album, but do I really have to sit through the whole thing? For the purposes of this project, yes, I did listen to it all the way through. So tick that of the list, but please don't make me do it again. This is no slight on Messrs. Townshend, Moon, Daltrey and Entwistle. The Who were a terrific and exciting rock band, as proved by Live at Leeds. But this stretches my patience.

I loved this film and album when I was a teenager, good to listen again. 'i'm free' reminds me of running along newqay beach feeling free of my gcses. Pinball wizard is a banger. Forgot just how dark the story is, it's also batshit in some ways but I like that, yeah enjoyed it.

This was funny as I couldn't remember if I'd seen Tommy or not but then as the album went on I started to remember parts of the film from watching it with the fam as a young teen. What a strange and wild story and song writing it all is! Also very troubling... Not sure how I felt about the peado song being on there. Well I do, unnecessary and seemingly trying to be a bit comical about abuse. My thoughts went to the Pete Townsend controversy... But what do I know! Anyway, I remember watching it with my family and I think it was good to see more surrealist film when largely I'd seen more conventional stuff I think was good. Opened my eyes even if I didn't know what to make of it. I put this in the same uncomfortable teen-family viewing as the Rocky Horror Picture Show

It's good yeah but not the best for a Who album. It seems strange to me because even though there are good whole songs on it, it really does sound like a film soundtrack which is strange for this list.

Never listened to this before, but I heard a few songs from it. I liked some of it, but it drags on too long in my opinion. The story of it is kinda weird as well? Whatever, The Pretty Things did it better in my opinion.

Brilliant!

Basically what happens when you try to be the Beatles but have less talent. Interesting ideas but no direction and limited command of their instruments. Nevertheless an important bioindicator in the music ecosystem to tell apart those who have a musical bone and those who don't; their fans.

Thisi is truly one of the albums ever. (I don't like numeric ratings, I just give 3 to anyone)

The CLASSIC, timeless legend.

better in total, but kind of passed me in it's meaning

Mieux que l'album live!

Great stuff. 5/5

I don’t think I ever realized exactly how dark the first half is-yikes!! A pretty brilliantly executed project with recurring themes in the lyrics and music-some songs are great and some aren’t; there’s an unevenness to how much I like it that keeps it from 5 stars.

Very old timey music, not as crazy as Electric Light Orchestra or anything. I do like a few songs on the album but there weren’t a ton that stood out. Pinball Wizard a classic though.

B- Overture 3 It's a Boy* 3 1921 3 Amazing Journey 3 Sparks 3 The Hawker 3 Christmas 4 Cousin Kevin 4 The Acid Queen 4 Underture 3 Do You Think It's Alright?* 3 Fiddle About 3 Pinball Wizard 3 There's a Doctor* 3 Go to the Mirror! 3 Tommy Can You Hear Me? 2 Smash the Mirror 3 Sensation 3 Miracle Cure* 3 Sally Simpson 3 I'm Free 3 Welcome 3 Tommy's Holiday Camp* 3 We're Not Gonna Take It 3 Well, this was better than I remembered.

A straight person's idea of a musical. At least it's a fully conceptual "album" better than some of the albums on this list...

A classic concept album, and for what it was it did it well.

FUCK YES

Fav song: 1921?

It took me several attempts to make it through "Tommy." Outside of Moon's energetic percussion, I was often bored, though I found the story interesting at times. 3.01

Haven't listened to Tommy in forever. Listened twice. Keith Moon!

Not too bad of an album. Have never listened to a lot of Th Who, but enjoyed this one. Blues and rock elements. Enjoyed it

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: 1921, Christmas, I’m free, We’re not gonna take it

J'ai beaucoup de difficulté d'embarquer dans ces albums concepts prog-rock.

I expected more. It's not bad, but just alright.

I’m sure it’s good. But I don’t really like The Who. And I am not in the mood for this today. Cannot get through one song. Calling it neutral, but today I fucking hate this shit.

Pinball Wizard

The first “rock opera” with an overture and everything. Ambitious and each member of The Who is at at the top of their game. Docked a star for a fair amount of songs which seem like filler.

Favorites: Its a Boy 1921 Cousin Kevin The Acid Queen I was listening on a loud ass plane, but I liked it! I was stressed as hell so I couldn't fully enjoy, so I'll be listening again because I think I would really like it.

better than the other rock albums cuz more expirmentsl but i zoned out towards end

Known before: Band/Some songs Standouts: 1. Overture 9. Acid Queen 15. Go To The Mirror 6.5/10 Additional note: Remove Tommy's Holiday Camp, cancel it. The Who can do better. Be better.

Known Before: Standouts: 4.0

Known before: Band Standouts: 13. Pinball Wizard Rating: 5.5

Known Before: No Standouts: No 4.0

don't like the who

I knew I would like this album because I like the song pinball Wizard but I was not prepared for the pedophile song directly before pinball wizard so now I am conflicted on how I should rate this. Worst of all is the pedophile song was quite catchy. (it was not a pro pedophilia song to clarify)

If I had been born in the 50s I would have been obsessed with this.

Didn't liked.

What a delightful journey through this conceptual rock opera. But a bit overrated, I’d say.

Lots of goofy stuff in here but the music is good throughout and it has Pinball Wizard.

I know this is the first rock opera but Who's Next is a more rockin' album.

could not care less

A meandering and overlong exercise in patience. No memorable songs.

Still just can’t get into the who

The Who ne déçoit jamais

Man this is so much sadder than I remember!

Spoko, ciekawa muzyka raczej nie ma tu nic do czego mógłbym wrócić ale jednorazowo ok, trochę się kojarzy z muzą taty

Three stars out of respect for the idea and effort, but this is one you fall asleep to and wake up wondering why you had such weird dreams.

The random album generator gave me two Who album in 4 days, and, unfortunately, the first one it gave me was "Live at Leeds", which I unfortunately felt was an unremarkable live album. I thought at the time that I was looking forward to listen to a proper Who album, but I was still rather unmotivated to listen to yet another Who album when I saw "Tommy" pop up three days later. Thankfully, Tommy was way better. It's an ambitious concept album, and while I heard some people consider it to be a bit pretentious nowadays, it was still a quite enjoyable experience. This album does a way better job showcasing why the Who is held in such high regards.

It's good, but christ alive is it long!

A terrific rock opera.

He’s a pinball wizard, donca know.

Fuck Tommy.

Anyone else find some of these songs sketchy af?

Genuinely one of the most irritating albums I’ve ever listened to, weird kids bop glossy pantomime ass music Pinball wizard goes though

A rock opera turns out to be a terrible idea. I'll give the Who a little bit of an excuse for having to be the ones to find that out. Like a lot of terrible ideas it doesn't seem so bad until it gets going and you're stuck doing something dumb. I bet in the end it didn't feel great to write & perform a bunch of this compared to a regular album. Fiddle Around a real lowlight, bad and repulsive. music: hated. (⌐■_■)

I feel pretty positively about the Who in general. First listen of this one, and boy. They did know how to rock, but they really didn’t know how to write a musical. And why would they? They’re the Who! This is maybe an interesting example of the impulse to believe that innovative pop music guys were some sort of creative geniuses, able to do more or less anything, when really most of em were just cool pop music guys.

I liked that The Who went full theatre kid rock opera mode on this album, but they chose to tackle a lot of pretty heavy stuff thematically that they maybe weren’t super well-equipped to handle with any level of tact. This is an ambitious experiment and I respect that about it but I didn’t particularly like it (aside from Pinball Wizard which is obviously a banger).

Good concept album, manages to stay interesting despite the double album length.

Really enjoyed this. Super weird, as a rock opera, and not sure if I think it works in that respect, but purely as a theme album, it was compelling.

Many memories around this one. Speaks volumes that this isn't even close to the best Who album, but it's still a masterpiece

Another banger, already knew most the good tunes. I think there are better The Who albums or songs

Sounds ok, but never been digging this band

Pinball wizard

Struggling to describe my feelings on this that don't just sound like backhanded compliments, but I think this is the album that's made The Who kind of click properly for me, and the thing that did that was hitting the books on the making of this one and realizing that: - a.) Pete Townshend's kinda... his reach exceeds his grasp, and he has a very very long reach, is how I'd maybe put it; but - b.) that’s the band's secret weapon. Leads to them taking big swings and having interesting results fall out of the effort. Their good songs don't happen without that

suprisingly boring. pinball wizard was the one song i actually remember anything about

The music itself was fine but nothing special, the story kind of meh, and it’s not something I’d bother listening to again

Maybe i need more listens or have to see the musical or something. Not feeling this.

Interesting to find out that this album was made into a musical as well

Meh

I think it has some great moments

Pinball wizard pretty good One other track was decent as well The rest was a bit boring and I feel like this is a bit overhyped as some visionary album. Maybe it was visionary at the time?

Song with a story innit. Fav: 1921

As a concept it works really well, however some individual songs do not work as stand-alone. An appetiser for Quadrophenia which is the better album.

I haven't heard much of this album before but it's good. I know people love The Who and I like some of their songs but overall-real good sound. Pinball Wizard is obviously great. This album is WICKED LONG. Like so long. It's good but it's losing my attention since I'm also doing other things while listening. A more focused 45min listen is possible but 2-3hrs isn't. We're Not Gonna Take It started out good and then got boring. I'm on the live portions now and I quit. Overall seems like I generally like The Who's sound but this just got too long

going into this album, I have already decided that I'm only going to listen to the first third. The trumpet thing in overture isn't really doing anything for me. 1921 has a pretty good tune! I don't know if I love the vocals on this album, it sounds about 20% ghost, something about the harmonization and breathiness. sparks has some good guitar skills. not a whole lot of variation between these songs. underture isn't interesting enough to warrant this length. what are they even singing about in any of these songs? they are either about some random person they know or it's comple nonsense. they keep on mentioning stuff like Tommy and the mirror and the wizard and I truly believe that it's because they can't think of anything else. Tommy's holiday camp? The Who has a few good songs but none of them are on this album, and what is on this album isn't songs I enjoyed for the most part.

Overall not a very catchy album. None of the songs were memorably bad or unlistenable, but I didn't find myself really loving the songs. I thought that the songs were slightly sparce but there were some good parts. Go to the mirror was pretty good, and so was Sally Simpson. The harmonization in the vocals felt natural and I found myself liking it more than not, but it's not really anything to write home about. Overall I would consider this album to be better than average but not truly worth of a four star rating. I would give it a 3.6 star, but I will have to round up. It's also really really long, I skipped through some of these songs the the underture. Just didn't want to hear it for that long.

Tommy is one of the first rock operas and still one of the best. If you are listening without hearing the words you aren't gonna get it. Not every song is an all-time great but the whole album is. It tells the story of Tommy, a traumatized boy who is good at pinball, is healed, and starts a cult. A tale as old as time. I really like the (French?) horns in Overture. Poor Tommy doesn't get Christmas :( The "wah oh wah oh wah oh" sound is fun. This is probably my favorite song if not Pinball Wizard. I forgot to continue to take specific song notes even though I listened to the album 2.5 times. I like how bits of melody from various songs show up throughout other songs, especially the instrumental ones like Overture and Underture. We're reviewing albums here and this is an Album if I've ever heard one. Perfect 5/7

I’m fascinated that this is characterised as Psychedelic Rock on here. I guess the plot is pretty psychedelic, but musically it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the psych scene from the late 60’s. This isn’t my favourite Who album. Not by a long shot. If you think about it as an actual opera, where the music is the most important part, and the libretto is secondary, then this album is a masterpiece. The combination of Townsend, Entwhistle and Moon plus orchestra is a winning one. And I love Daltrey’s voice. But, although Pete Townsend is a brilliant composer, and often a good lyricist, the lyrics when it comes to Tommy are often too weird for their own good. It may just be that it’s the entirely opposite sort of story to the one that I as a writer would write. I’m a realist, I try to deal with ordinary people in ordinary situations. The idea of a damaged, but brilliant man becoming a messiah and then losing his religious following is interesting. But, it’s not anything I’d want to write. Quadrophenia is a better album, both musically and storywise. But, Quadrophenia is pretty much perfect and as great as Tommy is, the nonsensical plot really does let it down. From what I’ve read, the plot to Lifehouse was even more nonsensical, and that completely fell through, which lead to Who’s Next, which IS a perfect album. Maybe, The Who just needed a few missteps to produce their masterpiece Rock Opera. But, as it is, Tommy is still a great album. Most authors first novel’s are worse than this, and they weren’t pioneering a new art form. All in all, it could have been worse. Which really is underselling it, because this is a really really good album

Classic 4.3

49 Based on this scale: 1 - 0 to 19 2 - 20 to 39 3 - 40 to 59 4 - 60 to 79 5 - 80 to 100 Pretentious rock opera concept album with good drum fills, thanks to Keith Moon. Pinball Wizard's good, as are other bits, but overall, I can't rate it higher than this.

Overture - Grappig begin van de plaat, en loopt mooi over in de volgende Its A Boy - Aa Sonnn 1921 - Prima Amazing Journey - Het geluidje op de achtergrond klinkt alsof het achterstevoren is afgespeeld. En loopt weer over in het volgende nummer Sparks - Instrumentaal tussen stukje, wel een beetje chaotisch Eyesight To The Blind - … Christmas - Wel grappig nummer Cousin Kevin - Niet geweldig The Acid Queen - … Underture - Vrij lang instrumentaal stukje Do You Think It’s Alright? - Tussen stukje Fiddle About - Fidddddllle Pinball Wizard - Wel leuk nummer There’s A Doctor - Tussen stukje Go To The Mirror - … Tommy Can You Hear Me? - Mweh Smash The Mirror - … Sensation - … Miracle Cure - Tussen stukje met pinball wizard Sally Simpson - Prima I’m Free - Niet Bijzonder Welcome - Prima Tommy’s Holiday Camp - Bijzonder We’re Not Gonna Take It - … 3.5

Couldn’t make it through all the creepy child rape and uncle bits. The hits are there, of course, but the rest is garbage and sounded like they were making it up as the album was being recorded. The repetitive, out of key, and out of sync lyrics were too much. This is no Wall, that’s for damn sure.

a masterpiece

Damn this is weird and long, and a bit unsettling in a not good way. Pinball Wizard makes it a 3.

An album torn between generations.

did not understand it in the beginning bc i was listening at the gym but soon noticed the musical themes coming back over and over, the overture, i should’ve paid attention it is such an Experience.

Some fun parts but I got bored a lot

Really enjoyed the story this album told and the music throughout; I've never been so relieved to hear Pinball Wizard in my entire life though. Whew.

Wasn’t a fan of the Jumpscare sexual assault stuff tbh

I mean Tommy can be meandering but I do like it a lot

The album felt long winded for the story it wanted to tell and could have used a few cuts or at least changes to make it flow better.

This being a rock opera, the sum of the whole is better than any one part (except for PINBALL WIZARD, babyyyyy); it makes for an interesting listen, but unfortunately nothing is incredibly memorable. However, it's genuinly a great and unique album.

Too 80s couldn’t finish it

Classic. Standouts: Pinball Wizard, Go to the Mirror, Tommy Can You Hear Me? See Me Feel Me, 1921, Overture, It's a Boy

Ugh. I don’t know shit about operas, but isn’t this a rock musical rather than a rock opera? I mean, it sounds like The Who doing a lame ass musical. So, The Who are pretty good, but lame ass musicals aren’t. This is like Micheal Jordan playing baseball. Or I guess if the Beatles did a rock musical, that would be like Michael Jordan playing baseball. This is more like Shaq playing a genie in “Shazam.” Blech.

Was rock never cool in the first place?? Truly horribly tasteless

Not for me, unfortunately.

Eh, it was long winded and faded into the background of what I was doing.

Classic. A bit long and better enjoyed as a “highlight reel” than a rock opera (there’s not much story here.)

This album creates a character and makes your gut wrench for him. The poor dumb, deaf and blind kid gets abused and taken advantage of. Then it makes you realize he is more than sum of his circumstances. He's mother f*ckin pinball wizard. The best rock opera on this list.

Listen to Tommy with a candle burning and you will see your entire future. I love this record.

Aika vekkuli levy. Kyllä ihan menevää rockia. Ei ehkä se Whon paras levy, mutta kova silti. Pinball Wizard tällä levyllä ja Tommys Holiday Camp oli hauska :D

Listened to this while playing Lacrimosa. I was familiar with one of the songs...I actually played Pinball Wizard as Elton John in a concert once! After having listened to the album, I realized Pinball Wizard is probably the best song...and I hate Pinball Wizard.

Zeneileg egysíkú, unalmas, továbbra sem értem miért szeretik emberek ezt a zenekart. Utánaolvasva érdekes a sztori amit elmesél, egyszer még érdemes lehet figyelmesebben ráhallgatni.

Heb hier precies wa geschiedenis voor nodig om het ten volste te appreciëren Maar wel leuk samenspel van veel instrumenten, en echt orgineel soms muzikaal fav liedjes: underture, overture voor de rest lichtjes koppijn

Called Forest Hills Apartments to schedule a tour.

Niet een heel aangenaam album. Alle nummers zijn nogal traag en lang zonder dat je er echt in meegesleurd wordt zoals bij sommige andere psychedelic rock. Er zitten wel een paar nummers tussen die nog oké zijn. Niet echt een album waar ik nog is naartoe ga surfen voor nog eens te luisteren.

Niet mijn ding, ziek lange intro bv, live concerten hebben meer karakter dan de studio opnames, die waren wel goed.

I like story telling.

3+ Viele tolle Songs dabei, Anfang und Ende richtig super. Dazwischen war es manchmal auch langatmig.

Never heard it before except one song. For me it’s quite different to what I’m used to listening, because of the rock opera style. Personal Top3 in no order: Pinball Wizard Sally Simpson I‘m Free

Hat mich nicht richtig abgeholt. Muss eventuell viel aktiver und in einer Sitzung durchgehört werden. Trotzdem ein interessantes Konzept und so manche besondere Stelle. 5.1/10

Pretty solid overall. This was a first time start to finish for me. Better than I was expecting, albeit a little long-winded at times. I understand it's a concept album, and those tend to be longer, but I was ready for this record to be done about an hour into the 75 minute running time.

Solid concept album. I enjoyed it more than I anticipated.

Some of the musical ideas are interesting or beautiful. But the lyrics are cringey. Not a fan. And the best songs have been played to death elsewhere all through my life.

Enjoyed it, this is my speed in general.

I can see why it's respected. I just wasn't excited by it.

Familiar but with some different tunes I hadn’t heard before. Another background music album. I enjoyed it although I tuned out during different songs. No standouts except the camp song. No idea that existed.

Great. Solid. I understand why it's on the 1001 list, but it's not for me.

I like the concept album structure a lot, so it was interesting to hear one of the very first ones (alongside Sgt Pepper I guess)? Personally, I wasn't that interested in the story of this album, and it felt like this album needed an editor to chop out a bunch of the filler. But all in all I'd call this a successful experiment! Also might as well throw in: I've never liked Pinball Wizard.

There’s a couple songs I enjoy, but mostly this is a bloated record. It’s just been written about so much people still listen to it, but I think it’s both a snoozer and a stinker. The Who has a much better body of work than this record would imply.

Not really a hot take to say Tommy sucks but I’ll take it one step further - pinball wizard also really fucking sucks.

I have so so SO much to say about this album. I know my reviews usually go on for way too long, but this has been taking up my entire conscious mind since listening through yesterday. It’s a tremendous, gigantic, INSANE, undertaking and it deserves my undivided attention for better and for worse. First off, of course I’m very familiar with this album. I listened to it a bit back in the day while learning about Classic Rock history. This is a landmark in the history of storytelling in popular music and an undeniably admirable execution of an artistic vision. It’s the original Rock Opera! Even though I despise that term. Pinball Wizard is the huge hit everyone knows front-to-back (and an absolute banger) but I also found myself remembering a few other key parts in the catchy mystique of The Acid Queen and the repeated lyrics of “Tommy can you hear me?!” and “See me…feel me…etc” throughout the album. That’s about all I really carried into this from the past though. Musically it’s a mixed bag for me. I admired kicking things off with an Overture (I’d imagine at the time seeing that would make some snobs think of them as “real” musicians), and thought the classic Who-style rock arrangements were pretty fun. They branch out into kind of Folk-influenced passages here and there, and certainly have a little bit of a psychedelic break in the middle during the Underture (more on that later), but I don’t feel the actual musical arrangements do a whole lot to move the story along. A bright spot is the drumming of Keith Moon, who I think ABSOLUTELY steals the show on this album. The long instrumental breaks would not pack nearly the same punch without his versatility creating atmosphere at a frantic, driving pace. There’s a few goofy interludes, but for the most part it’s that Classic Rock sound that defines The Who. Overall at the very least interesting to listen to. Now, for the bulk of what I need to talk about. Lyrics! AKA The Plot. I like this came up so soon after Dark Side Of The Moon for us because they sort of represent a debate that has divided movie audiences for years that we can now extend to music: Theme VS Plot. Dark Side was a concept album but in a very abstract and thematic way. We weren’t listening to Dark Side saying “okay so he was breathing in the air and now he’s on the run, but look! Too much time went by! Now he’s at the great gig in the sky!” It was a “story” in the sense it tackled large universal experiences of life, but they were applied conceptually as opposed to locking in on the individual experience of it. Tommy is clearly MUCH different. We follow a boy who sees his father murder his mother’s lover, shut down his senses from the trauma, get abused, become a pinball god to cope, develop a following, get healed, and then get rejected by his own movement. There is a LOT of plot going on, lots of things we get told are happening, and a story we actually need to follow and understand. Soooo this story I summed up, it’s paced really weird. This is a 4 side album, and we need get past the 1st quarter of side 3 (AKA 9/16 of the way) before they finally stop with what I can only describe as torture porn of the protagonist. Seriously I didn’t remember it being that crazy. The MAJORITY of this record is Tommy being yelled at by his parents, physically abused by his cousin, drugged with psychedelics without his consent, being r*ped by the woman who drugged him, and getting molested by his uncle. In FACT, we go DIRECTLY from his uncle’s sexual abuse to the first mention of him being amazing at pinball with only an iconic guitar intro in between. That’s pretty wild and not something they mention when they play it on WZZO. It doesn’t really have much purpose to me except to be edgy. Again, this is a plot-heavy story, and in the plot after mentioning how good at pinball he is (again, sequenced in a way that seems like it’s BECAUSE he got molested) we spend a few songs with a doctor who ultimately leads him to a mirror which smashes, breaking Tommy from his state. Anyway, from there it’s his “downfall” so to speak where he ends up being rejected by his own movement because they don’t want to act like they can’t hear or see, and they don’t like that he wants them to be teetotalers. Also his pedo Uncle Ernie is in a position of leadership at the camp/compound they stay at? Yikes. Anyway, not a fan of the story obviously, but what makes me dislike it MORE is that Pete Townshend credits his inspiration for the story to the teachings of Meher Baba. I touched on this briefly in my Who’s Next review, but I don’t think anybody has ever benefitted less from a spiritual awakening than Pete. This is the same spiritual figure who inspired the song “Don’t Worry Be Happy”, and I don’t know how Pete became so jaded in his worldview while interpreting the same teachings that so many others interpreted as a direction to maintain positivity in everyday life. Besides all the abuse stuff, this shares a theme with some tracks on Who’s Next in that it depicts the failure of a movement/revolution, and seems to imply there’s no reason to bother with such things. This album is really a bummer lyrically, I really am baffled by how much of a grouch Pete seemed to be from such a young age. Anyway, I’ll cut things off there. I think that’s most of what I wanted to say. A few good songs, some good motifs, but really gets bogged down by the story. I truly have no idea what the intentions behind such a strange narrative are, but I did my best to interpret it and all it tells me is Pete Townshend was born a grouchy old English man and he is surprisingly negative for someone who at least at this point followed a “we are all one with god” mantra. I don’t understand how these lyrics reflect anything beyond someone who doesn’t see the point of life, and even though some of these songs rock pretty hard, I don’t see much of the point either. It’s all pain and disappointment. If I get the fucking Limp Bizkit album next I’m really going to bottom out.

This is what a rock opera should be. Clearly set the standard in a lot of ways (in some ways for the worst), but I really enjoyed listening all the way through

Can a concept album be too concepty?? The only way to truly tell is to lock yourself in a pitch black room listen to Tommy in its entirety, then see if you have the strength to do it again.

Honestly, the songs that stick with me from this are "Cousin Kevin" and "Fiddle About" because I found them profoundly disturbing. The whole concept feels alien to the current moment. It's hard to imagine a band getting away with using a person's disability for thematic exploration like this. Two stars because "we're not going to take" it still slaps.

This album was good. Didn't know what to expect going into it. Some familiar songs, lots I hadn't heard before.

Probably my favorite time ever listening to Tommy - quiet, deliberately, really neat to give it the tom of day

I have a hard time understanding how so many people are giving this 5 stars. I listened to it twice, thinking I must’ve missed something the first time. I like the concept/story tho. It’s just the songs suck to me, except Pinball Wizard. But to each their own, I just don’t get it.

👍🏼

Classic for sure

Concepty, should probably give more listens.

Je croyais ne jamais en voir le bout

pauvre tommy

the book™️ refers to this album as “naive” “a rocky ride” and “a load of self-indulgent high-school conceptualism”. and the book™️ has a lot more positive feelings about the records it put on this list than i do. this record is bloated lumbering and drab as all hell. just because you have a story idea and the resources and will to execute it. doesn’t mean it’s gonna be any good. and this record fucking sucks. common british L.

The first rock opera I ever listened to as a kid. And it's awesome...because it's The Who. It really is that simple sometimes. One of my favorite ever album covers too. Favorite track: Pinball Wizard

The Who can do no wrong

I think I need to do myself a favor and re-listen to Who's Next, because I can't tell if I like this one better, or if I like them equally. This is credited as one of the first real rock operas. And because of that, this album tries to tell a story. A story that, if you look into it, is actually kind of interesting and slightly dark. But due to this sort of concept album feeling, there are a lot of much shorter songs, that aren't really all that interesting musically, but are there for the purpose of telling the story, (Tommy's Holiday Camp comes to mind). The Wall did the same thing. And it is the reason why I am not super into that album. There is just a lot of padding and bloat in both of these records. This album has 24 songs, but is only an hour and 16 minutes long. This album also feels scaled back compared to its successor. The energy and power isn't really there, and Keith Moon, who is still an excellent drummer here, feels held back considerably, compared to the way he soars over the kit on songs like Bargain. This album just doesn't have those specific moments everyone remembers that makes Who's Next so memorable. Roger's scream at the end of Won't Get Fooled Again might be one of the greatest career highlights of any 70's band ever. But I think in terms of pulling together a large scale concept, this album does a good job. They try a lot of different ideas here, and it makes for an ambitious, at some points overwhelming, album. Again, not 100% sure which one I like more, but I think for now, I will give it to this record. Rating: 7/10

Nice, but it didn't age well

It seems harsh but I did just get a bit bored so I will give this 2 stars. As much as I love pinball wizard, the rest of the album just didn’t pique my interest.

Don't like it much. Instrumentals are quite good background music but some of the story sounds horrible 😬. 'Fiddle about', you say? Dodgier than P. Townsend's browser history 🤮

The instrumental bits I really enjoyed, but I'm really not a fan of the vocals.

oh I get it, it's British Invasion and a rock opera.. this must have been 4 sides of vinyl with a runtime just under 1 hour and 15 minutes. Townsend rocks. Is this the first Rock operas? I can appreciate this, but listening to this in 2023 has me craving for a more modern guitar production. Best Track: Pinball Wizard

another classic by the who. does not age well.

Eh. Maybe you gotta watch the movie to get the full gist of this one. There's some good stuff in here, but I would definitely consider this a soundtrack way more than a rock opera.

I wish its ambition was matched with equal musical innovation and exploration. A number of stand out songs are surrounded by filler songs that string along a loose uninteresting narrative.

Interesting story, didn’t realize the rock opera was so impactful for the who.

Three hours?! Three! That's insane Jeremy! It's actually quite good, once you get over the fact that there's still several days of The Who being pleased with themselves ahead of you. The progression in songwriting from four years earlier is stark, and it hangs together as a concept album. People rave about it though, and I find that confusing. It's just OK. Obviously Pinball Wizard is one of the all time great bangers, and songs like Christmas are good fun, but there's a lot of filler.

It is too slow paced for me.

Some lovely songs in here, I loved that the beat from pinball wizard shows up in different versions throughout the album, kind of ties it all together.

3.5

This record feels like watching a play that's equally disturbing as it is fascinating - there are times when you want to look away but you feel so mesmerized that you just can't.

Great vibes from the '60s and '70s. I kind of thought this had an American sound to it for an English band, as weird of an idea that might be... Perhaps it's just a sound of the time rather than sound of a nation but influence could come into it. Lots of interesting instrumentation and arrangements across the whole album. Lyrics are often gentle and abstract which is nice... There are a couple of songs, especially the last one where lyrics get a bit direct and heavy (like Closer by Nine Inch Nails) so I wouldn't be surprised if there's weirder stuff made abstract in other lyrics. A very long album at ~24 tracks (some are short though).

Epic.

Pretty catchy. Love the trombone and trumpet parts of the intro song, Overture.

I aint listening to the super deluxe, normal version was pretty decent though

Aivan liian pitkä ja ärsyttävä. Lajissaan ja ajassaan tokk erinomainen ja edelläkävijäkin (toki Beatlesia ja muuta aikaansa paljon keryaava, trendejä kun oli). Ei vain sytytä.

Tyylillisesti ja tulkinnallisesti hivenen ärsyttävää totta kai, mutta melodisesti keskiarvoltaan kiitettävää, ja siis erittäin kuunneltavaa - siitäkin huolimatta, että samassa ajassa ehtisi London Callingin tai Exile on Main Streetin läpi.

Mikið bland í poka. Nr. 1, Daltrey er einfaldlega ekki neitt spes, frekar bleh raunar. Nr. 2, sum lögin eru eðli málsins samkvæmt filler til að segja söguna. Nr. 3, hvað er með þessa sögu? Nr. 4, svo er sumt þrátt fyrir allt eftirminnilegt og frábært.

This album was formative for me when I started branching out into art rock. The album sets up its musical themes well in the overtures and features several musical and lyrical motifs throughout. It is arranged and produced very thoughtfully. The story itself is strange at best. However, this album was one of the first full rock operas and certainly took a lot of risk.

Better than who's next in my opinion

A perfect concept album and, possibly, the best rock opera. Experimental musical ideas combined with an interesting story that is relative to all time periods all while having wide range and enjoyable songs. I admit that it takes a couple listens to fully appreciate, but it is well worth it. Only real complaint would be sometimes the vocals aren’t exactly pitch perfect, but I do not care. Love this thing. 5/5

“Overture” is a very strong start Story arc and structure work pretty well and there is cohesion across songs, though songs are sonically diverse – Townsend knew what he was doing, putting this thing together. Top cuts: "Christmas" "Overture" "It's a Boy" "Acid Queen" "Tommy Can You Hear Me?" Maybe the best of the rock operas. Ambition and execution are well aligned and balanced.

Not typically my style of rock music. But the fact that they were able to illustrate these songs into a playwright is pretty cool. The who is an amazing band but this album isn’t one that I’m gonna write home about. But again, I do appreciate the artistry.

Not as bad as The wall, but way too theatrical, and filled with too many ideas, Side C flows pretty great tho, and Overture and Underture are great

The Who are kinda considered to be the og classic rock band, which makes listening to a full The Who album a strange experience. This album is really diverse. From the almost religious chanting in "It's a Boy" to the Beach Boys-like harmonizing on "Tommy Can You Hear Me?". It tells a story a bit more straight forward than most other rock concept albums. The music definitely holds up, it's packed with power and has plenty of variety to keep you interested. Absolutely worth a listen.

it was okay

Love ‘Tommy’. As a kid, my son and I would listen to it all the time. He loves ‘Pinball Wizard’ even now as a surly teenager.

pur și simplu n-am cap de albumul ăsta acum, poate o să îl revizitez cândva (deși nu prea cred dar cine știe). n-am răbdare, melodiile nu-mi plac, povestea nu mă interesează destul încât chiar să ascult chestia asta. am înțeles, rock opera, bravo, poate o să mă uit la film dar n-am de gând să ascult albumul ăsta până la capăt. e și lung ca dracu mai lasă-mă cu tommyu tău

Iconic and original, not much to say that hasn't already been said.

Singing is kinda weak on some of these tracks - kinda the same effect as Supertramp, where it seems like they're really straining. The amount of times they reference "deaf, dumb, and blind" seems gratuitous. I'm still struggling with the vocals as well - Sensation felt hard to sit through. There's something edgeless about the sound of this whole thing that makes it feel weirdly plastic. I'm also not sensing much in the way of hooks, most of the songs lack a distinct chorus. Some of the more low-key moments like Welcome can sound quite lovely when the harmonies and acoustic guitar are prominent.

As I get older, the messages in Tommy pretentious and less true in my esteem. In many ways, its similar to how I look at some of the more "long form" that The Youth are calling profound and I cringe. Like, the abused kid leading a cult via his pinball playing is so goofy it could only come out of the (near) 70s. That being said, I do appreciate the labor Pete Townshend put into making the Rock Opera a thing. The existence of narrative albums has made the world a better place, and I guess by merging Rock and Opera, you were due to get some silliness. Either way, I'd definitely listen to this again (unlike their live album that was recommended).

classic

One of the freatest concept albums of all time

not really my thing

4/5. Awesome concept album. I loved the fact that everything related to each other, similar to a Pink Floyd album. I liked the song, “We’re not Gonna Take It.”

Un super album, les albums concept c'est pa.dtoujours fou mais celui ci se démarque vraiment

I get it, The Who are a legendary band and all. But I did not liked it but a song or two ...

Sure, I may be giving it 5 stars, but it might be my most reluctant perfect rating. The Who are fine, but IMO a little over-hyped and then I won't even get into the allegations against Pete Townshend... With that said, is Tommy an iconic album? Of course it is. And especially an iconic album as an ALBUM. You've just got to listen to it in its entirety and please do it before you die. So yeah, sure, 5 stars.

The rock opera concept, while creative, did not age well in this album. The radio hits are still solid, but the connecting songs were contrived and did little to make the cohesive story any more enjoyable. I probably would not listen to this end-to-end again, even though the hits are in steady rotation in my various playlists. 5 stars for the hit songs. 3 stars for the execution and concept. 4 stars overall.

I don't like this album, really not my kind of music. I don't like the who. Sorry.

Might be a breakthrough back in 1969, but for some reason it did not resonate with me. I understand that it is a masterpiece based on the musical complexity, but still, not for me.

Meh

Aangezet terwijl ik aan het vliegvissen was. Ik weet nog dat vrij in het begin ons Tommy geboren werd. Daarna ben ik qua verhaal volledig afgehaakt omdat ik al vrij vroeg in het album onverwacht een brasem aan de lijn kreeg. Ik herinner me vooral het gevoel dat ik heel lang naar een gedateerde musical aan het luisteren was. Niet mijn album, maar desondanks niet getwijfeld om liedjes te skippen of het album af te zetten. Tussen de 2 en 3, maar ik vind een 3 te hoog.

This album is a clear concept rock opera album that's quite strong. The album includes Pinball Wizard.

What if a band that wrote really good 3-minute rock songs drew out an idea for a 70-minute album? What if that album told a story? And what if the songs were subsumed to telling the story? And what if the story was extremely goofy? Pinball Wizard is a very dumb idea for song but is way better than it has any right to be. The rest is extremely boring. Random guitar parts throughout sound good and I always love JE on bass - but these songs are such a drag.

It has some great tracks, but I've neve been a big fan of The Who

It's Tommy. It's a classic. 5 stars.

Long album that can be slow at times. Probably deserves a more in depth look at lyrics but its hard to follow over an hour long album. Always like an album that tells a story though. Pinball wizard is great but hard to get into many of the other songs

There are a few songs I enjoyed, Pinball Wizard is a classic. Didn’t really care much for it though and struggled to make it all the way through.

Comments not needed,

So, on this one, I'm kind of torn in terms of a rating. I think I have to approach it a little differently than I might otherwise, precisely because A) I'm intimately familiar with this record B) I think it's actually a somewhat important record, in terms of being ambitious C) I have a soft spot for the band. I wouldn't argue with someone who gave it a three strictly based on the quality of the tunes and the musicianship, but that said, in context, this is a pretty great record, though I like earlier Who more, and for a big grandiose mess, I strongly prefer Quadrophenia. The "rock opera" and "concept album" would never have gotten real momentum without this record and how successful it was.

Pretty great, but I think the songs get a little thinner in the last third of the album.

3,5

Not quite go the power, passion and absolute intensity of Quadrophenia, but still fantastic. Also can't unhear the soundtrack versions of songs by the Acid Queen and Elton.

Veldig gid stemning, men jeg kom meg aldri gjennom

It's fine, doesn't really do it for me

Didn’t get into it at all, bland

Mediocre singing in songs that range from boring to stupid. Severely overrated in my opinion.

Not a fan of mellow The Who

It's not perfect. Like many double albums Tommy would have made a killer single album. Put Christmas at the end of side one. Then side two is The Acid Queen, Pinball Wizard, I'm Free and See Me Feel Me/Listening To You, finishing with Underture. Shame to leave out Cousin Kevin but there we go. It's still a great album though and I love it.

3.5

interesting concept album with cool music i guess it will stay relevant just out of its sheer odd story

went in with expectations and got really let down! Album is much more instrumental than I thought it would be and sounded almost more in the prog-rock space, felt really drawn out

The ambition of this record is fairly astonishing. A double album telling the story of an abused deaf, dumb and blind kid. It could only happen in the sixties. Here you’ll find some of The WHO’s finest moments. The album that started to secure their legendary status. It’s a record that should be heard. Even if rock ain’t your thing, listening to the whole thing from start to finish is a must for anyone who appreciates the LP format.

Such a unique classic. The instrumentation is great. The lyrics can be weird but I think that is part of the charm.

Gotta love The Who, this album is ground breaking in it's approach to story telling though the medium of an album. The best part of this album might actually be the humor that they employ with songs like Tommy's Holiday Camp and pinball wizard. I also enjoy the tones of this instruments, but that is more a product of the 1960's. Idk if this is The Who's most impressive album, but there is a lot of dynamics that makes it belong on this list

Absolutely gigachadded

Strong 4, based rock opera

I never got the hype

Ahh Thomas. Weird and wonderful.

The Who’s best

The Who's magnum opus still rocks nearly 60 years later. Well worth a listen.

4/19, 21%

Wow, never really been a fan of themed albums or ‘rock opera’ but had to give this a second spin and will be diving into more of the stuff from The Who I haven’t delved into.

A perfect album.

Not the worst The Who album, but at this point the should rename the band to "The oh it's you on the list again"

I hadn't heard this album in my entire life outside of "Pinball Wizard" here and there on the radio or at someone's house. I knew that the album was a rock opera, but I didn't know it was billed as the first of its kind. Having the full picture of Tommy's life before and after "Pinball Wizard" has changed how I experience the song. Tommy was a wild ride with some shocking and unexpected moments throughout. Overall, the composition and performances are extremely solid and I enjoyed the musical aspect completely. The concept and story was a little unclear at times if I hadn't read the Wikipedia article on it, I probably would have missed the flow of the story.

I go in and out of appreciating and understanding the Who. In particular, I never really got Tommy before, but this time it clicked for me. Overture lays out all the musical themes to come, the songs then build up through Tommy’s back story. A highlight is definitely Keith Moon’s drumming, he’s like an artist painting a picture of movement and time. One instance that stuck out to me was on Fiddle About, the drumming speed and sound accentuate the terrifying action of the song. Pinball Wizard might be the most overplayed Who song, but hearing it in the context of the album breathes new life and meaning into it. The second half of the album in general is pretty awesome. Go to the Mirror is probably the next closest thing to a single and it’s great. Not sure I’d casually listen to a 75 minute rock opera, but when in the mood it is definitely one of the best.

Classic!!! Rock opera was born. Musicality of this album is masterful. Love it now and loved it then.

No rock operas for me please. Get back to the three-minute pop song format. Some lyrics are darker than black metal.

Influential and visionary. This is one of the most celebrated albums in rock history, no doubt about it. If I find it boring or not is irrelevant.

One of the OG rock operas. There are better concept albums, better "rock operas", and better Who albums that cover all those conditions (Quadrophenia is the correct answer, for anyone reading this who's wondering.) However, there is greatness here, though it is a flawed work. Underture happens to be one of my favorite tracks on the album. Pinball Wizard is overrated. The final track, We're Not Gonna Take It, descends into moving theme. Fiddle About is painfully uncomfortable. I mean, having Tommy's Holiday Camp as the second to last track, one could make an argument that this album's theme is the cyclic nature of abuse. Definitely doesn't age well. Good, not great. Meaningfully impactful on the state of music at the time. I despise the child abuse themes.

Tremendo discazo. Es como de teatro, no sabes cuándo un tema termina y arranca el otro. Luego busque y es 'ópera-rock'.

Very forgettable and boring concept album.

Good rock album. Would need to give it another listen. Not into long albums!

I like the Who and know a lot of their other work. Can't say I've listened to this before but feel it would be better having watched the film. Pinball Wizard and Sally Simpson are more what I was expecting of this album

Aldrig lyssnat mycket på The Who och är det något album som har bistått med "låtar i förbifarten" är det "Who's Next". Så detta var spännande! Första låten "Overture" känns lite som en klassisk öppningslåt på ett album, lite som ett interlude för att kicka igång skivan. Dock känns det som att den typen av låtar ofta inte är mer än max 2 minuter långa. "Overture" var en 5 minuters fulllåt, men som ändå gav den känslan. Vet inte om det är bra? Lutar åt att det kanske var lite onödigt. Sedan när andra låten visar sig vara 40 sekunder lång och exakt det jag trodde att första låten var tänkt att vara, kan jag inte känna mig något annat är lite smålurad. Det som fortsätter efter det är ett gäng låtar av ljummen rock som jag i denna värme inte känner inspiration att känna in på djupet. Dom är okej. Vi är framme vid albumets mastodontare, "Underture", där första halvan var otroligt ointressant. På ett sätt som gjorde mig lite orolig när jag såg att den var 10 minuter lång. Den gör ändå något miniförsök till förändring ett par gånger, men inte på något sätt som gör 7 minuter värda att spendera innan det händer. Inte ens nära. Som en person som är svag för mastodontare måste jag erkänna att det här är albumets sämsta låt. Det riktiga minilyftet kommer när albumets mest lyssnade låt rullar igång. "Pinball Wizard" är ändå en rätt bra låt. Det är en akustisk gitarr som lägger till mycket känsla och driv till låten. Bättre! Det är väldigt många kortlåtar genom albumets gång (1-2 min) där många innehåller ett körande som påminner om The Beach Boys. Inte orimligt då det är 1969. Detta gör nog att albumet känns längre än vad det är, 24 låtar borde vara längre än 74 minuter. Som helhet slår inte albumet några rekord i min bok. Visserligen gillar jag albumkonceptet där man får följa Tommy's resa och det är ett anständigt omslag. Musiken blir i längden lite svår att gå igång extra på, även om det är väl genomförd rock. Det är också, precis som "Underture", alldeles för långt. Bäst: "Pinball Wizard"

A great if unbalanced album. This is one of my favorite albums and I love to listen to it for all the great parts and not so great parts

I'm not a big Who fan and didn't like the film at all, so I couldn't quite persevere with this one. Appreciate the concept but it's not for me.

There's some seriously dark themes for a record in which the best song is about pinball. Seriously, pick a lane-- the songs about SA are, like, RIGHT next to Pinball Wizard. It's interesting as an earlier concept album, but it's definitely not the best, most well-thought out, or most interesting concept. Most of it whizzed right past me. 3/5 letters lit up. Multiball activated!

Didn't realise it was a concept story telling album until near the end, so I didn't give the correct attention. But I did enjoy quite a few bits. WIll listen again.

The first true rock opera, you can't help but admire the ambition behind this album. Pete Townshend was only 23 when he put it together, so it's hard to be tough on him if a few sections of this are a little clunky. Awkward, exposition-laden lyrics are a fixture of musical theatre, and that's basically what we're doing here, right? There aren't many hits here, or even many songs that could stand on their own. But despite all of this damning praise, I really do think that this album is a feat worthy of celebrating.

Probably only gets a 3 because of my very specific Almost Famous nostalgia

Tommy is such a weird album to me. I get why people enjoy it, but it's not what I go in for when I want to listen to The Who. The whole opera concept is goofy and most songs are pretty bland. There are a few instrumental standouts and pinball wizard, but otherwise there isn't enough Entwisel magic or Moon weirdness to make this enjoyable.

Pinball wizard is a great song. Cousin Kevin should have been better given the name of the song... Overall I like the 2nd half of this much better. I would give 2nd half 3 stars and first half 1 star

Underture was awesome. Pete Townshend and Keith Moon are awesome. Lots of classics that just keep bringing up Mr. P. Wizard. Never realized how fucked up the story of this album was until reading about it. Great listen.

Pretty disappointing album for the praise that I have heard from it. A bunch of really weird mini songs that I didn't enjoy too much. They really liked singing about pinballs

Cousin Kevin is pretty cool. This had some good songs and a lot of songs that just happen and aren't exciting in any way. Pinball Wizard rules obviously and is way better than any other song on this rekkid. Can dig the bass on Go To The Mirror! too. I'm Free is a jam too. Overall a pretty boring album besides a couple songs. This album should've been 30 minutes shorter.

cool

Interesting but it did drag on a little.

Vinyl

Genre defining, a staggering display of raw talent. REALLY boring.

While Tommy himself can't talk, his album speaks for itself. Favorite tracks: 'Christmas' and 'Cousin Kevin'

4-/5

Dette er den typen album hvor man faktisk må følge med, og det har man jo dessverre sjelden tid til. Men konseptet med en "historie" er stilig.

Music for another type of dad. Not really into it - way too up their own ass.

I dig the who but never cared for this album. Bold in its concept I feel like it just misses the mark for trying to keep up the joke

Light 9

A few classics, nothing crazy