Pete Townshend originally planned
The Who Sell Out as a concept album of sorts that would simultaneously mock and pay tribute to pirate radio stations, complete with fake jingles and commercials linking the tracks. For reasons that remain somewhat ill defined, the concept wasn't quite driven to completion, breaking down around the middle of side two (on the original vinyl configuration). Nonetheless, on strictly musical merits, it's a terrific set of songs that ultimately stands as one of the group's greatest achievements. "I Can See for Miles" (a Top Ten hit) is
the Who at their most thunderous; tinges of psychedelia add a rush to "Armenia City in the Sky" and "Relax"; "I Can't Reach You" finds
Townshend beginning to stretch himself into quasi-spiritual territory; and "Tattoo" and the acoustic "Sunrise" show introspective, vulnerable sides to the singer/songwriter that had previously been hidden. "Rael" was another mini-opera, with musical motifs that reappeared in
Tommy. The album is as perfect a balance between melodic mod pop and powerful instrumentation as
the Who (or any other group) would achieve; psychedelic pop was never as jubilant, not to say funny (the fake commercials and jingles interspersed between the songs are a hoot).
The Who Sell Out has seen two significant expansions prior to 2021's Super Deluxe Edition. Ten outtakes were added to the 1995 reissue of the album, while the 2009 deluxe edition contained both the stereo and mono mixes along with 29 bonus tracks. Nearly all of this material is on the 2021 Super Deluxe Edition, a hefty box containing five CDs, a pair of 7" singles, a hardcover book, and a bunch of memorabilia (the reissue also had accompanying relatively bare-bones LP and CD editions, which added various outtakes to the album). Those earlier expansions did unearth the meatier unheard music from
The Who Sell Out sessions, yet there are still some significant discoveries here, notably the disc of unreleased
Pete Townshend demos which include the rarities "Kids! Do You Want Kids," "Inside Outside USA," and "Thinking of You All the While." There is also a disc of "Who Studio Sessions" from 1967 and 1968, which gathers alternate takes of familiar tunes and non-LP songs; nothing revelatory here, but it's all worthy. Of greater interest is the "The Road to Tommy 1968," a fourth disc which rounds up songs and singles cut between
Sell Out and
Tommy, including
John Entwistle's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde," the surf wannabe "Call Me Lightning," the rocking "Magic Bus," and "Dogs," a flop single that pointed the way toward Brit-pop. Collectively, there is a fair amount of repetition -- within the box itself, not to mention the previous editions -- yet the whole set remains compulsively listenable as it teems with imagination.
The Who seemed to keep inventing and reinventing themselves on
The Who Sell Out and that process of discovery not only remains enthralling decades later, it's worthy of a comprehensive set like this. ~ Richie Unterberger & Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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