The weirdness of the album’s sound and story is a feature, not a bug. With ‘Tommy,’ the band is asking us to listen differently, and its musical diversity is an unbelievable achievement.

The band’s sixth studio album is only a masterpiece because of the collaboration that defines it. Every band member is operating at the absolute height of their powers.

While ‘Tommy’ (1969) spoke to the restorative power of rock & roll at the end of the ‘60s, ‘Who Are You’ speaks to the dissolution of those ideals at the end of the ‘70s and the band’s run as a four-piece.

Today, we generally don’t know how to separate art from commerce (even art that makes no money has branding) and ‘The Who Sell Out’ combines the two to make an artistic statement.

The Who’s second studio album both foreshadows their illustrious career and represents an alternate universe where they fizzle out on novelties and competent but not world-changing music.

‘The Who By Numbers’ is the only time that The Who drop the pretenses and tell us how they feel, while still operating at the height of their musical powers.