1001 Albums Summary

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.

Let me tell ya, when those opening notes of the title track kicked in to open the album, I was 17 again. What a deep and affecting dose of Indie nostalgia. Then the song ends with the final notes ringing out into the near-perfect Ready To Start. Gotta be one of the best 1-2 punches to kick off a record in the genre. Beautiful, affecting music. The rest of the record? Not so much. I like a track here or there but I associate Arcade Fire with the inconsistency very much on display here. What does a song like Deep Blue have to offer me that I don’t get from any other Indie band? Why would I listen to Sprawl II instead of like Passion Pit? There is of course also a little bit of a pall hanging over this group because of sexual misconduct allegations against Win Butler, but I’m not holding that against the rest of the group. What I will blame them for is creating a gigantic band which can so frequently produce a bland sound. It’s a shame the soaring highs seem to be met with such generic lows. Ultimately, an inconsistent and drawn out album. Top tracks: The Suburbs, Ready To Start, Modern Man, Suburban War, Month Of May, We Used To Wait

Front to back, what an incredible accomplishment. Almost every single track hits. The whole record flows perfectly, it’s stacked top to bottom with great features and guest musicians building out the deep textured arrangements. Bits of Jazz, Funk, Soul, everything gets thrown in here to make a truly unique record. Still sounds fresh 8 years later, lives up to every bit of hype there has been about it. Side note: Certainly an album that I feel really defines what this project is all about. Anybody should give this a shot no matter how far out of their comfort zone or cultural experience this is. It truly feels like a privilege to experience such a complete artistic statement. Top tracks: King Kunta, These Walls, u, Alright, The Blacker The Berry, i

This album runs on “guy who loves the Beatles” energy, which doesn’t really grab me at all. It’s not like it’s BAD, it’s just pretty well-treaded territory and not particularly interesting or engaging to me. Usually an album like this is very lyrics-first but those weren’t even super interesting (except releasing a flurry of slurs towards the end). Def in the 2 star range, which for me is “not going to ever seek it out but I’m not going out of my way to turn it off if it’s playing somewhere”

Went into it expecting a solid 4, got won over even more by the lyricism and extra guitar work the whole way through. Is it possible REM has multiple 5-star albums?! I think this is one for sure and I know for a fact this isn’t my favorite record of theirs!