Artist: The Who · Album: Who’s Next · Year: 1971 · Label: Track / Decca · Rank: 77 / 500
Who’s Next is what happens when your grand concept collapses but the songs are too good to waste. Pete Townshend’s ambitious multimedia project Lifehouse imploded under its own weight; out of its wreckage, The Who salvaged nine tracks, tightened them, and accidentally made one of the definitive hard rock albums of the 70s.
Synths as Earthquake, Not Decoration
The most famous shock comes right at the top: the bubbling, arpeggiated synth of “Baba O’Riley,” detonating into Keith Moon’s drums and that titanic guitar chord. In 1971 this wasn’t just “a cool intro,” it was a new language – synthesizers not as spacey extras, but as the backbone of an arena anthem.
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” bookends the record with a similar trick: a long synth build, band slamming in, Roger Daltrey’s throat-shredding “YEEEEAAAH!” cutting through the mix like a riot siren.
Failed Utopia, Still-Burning Rage
Even without the full Lifehouse storyline, these songs drip with Townshend’s anxiety about youth culture, politics, and spiritual burnout. “Bargain” sounds like a love song until you realize it’s about surrendering ego; “Behind Blue Eyes” flips from fragile self-pity to explosive fury in one bridge.
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” often gets misread as apathy – that infamous “meet the new boss / same as the old boss” line. But the performance tells a different story: not cynicism, but a refusal to buy easy revolution narratives ever again.
A Band at Maximum Power
The Who were always a chemistry experiment on the edge of combustion, and here they sound perfectly balanced: Townshend chopping out windmill chords and melodic leads, John Entwistle’s bass basically functioning as a second lead guitar, Moon turning the drum kit into a runaway train that somehow never derails.
Deep cuts like “The Song Is Over,” “Getting in Tune,” and “Going Mobile” show how agile they could be – slipping between ballad delicacy and full rock blitz within a single track, without losing the thread.
Legacy
Who’s Next quietly rewrote the rules for big rock albums: you could be conceptual without needing a libretto, experimental with synths and still hit like a brick wall. From arena rock to modern indie bands messing with sequencers and guitars, a huge chunk of the vocabulary runs through these nine songs.