Quadrophenia has been reissued before, including a notably remixed version in 1996, but it has never been expanded. The 2011 "Director's Cut" makes up for lost time by offering two different expanded editions of the album (presented in its 1996 remix): a double-disc edition rounded out with 11 demos -- all performed solo by
Pete Townshend, two of which are songs that didn't make the final cut -- and a Super Deluxe Edition that adds an early version of the album comprised entirely of
Townshend demos, a DVD containing 5.1 mixes from selected songs from the album, and a host of extras highlighted by a 100-page hardcover book featuring many photos, memorabilia from
Townshend's archive, lyrics, and a new, lengthy essay from
Pete. While the double-disc edition is quite a handsome thing in its own right -- the two discs may be split at an odd point, between "Drowned" and "Bell Boy," the latter the last song on side three on the original album; the demos more than make up for this quirk -- the Super Deluxe Edition is something special thanks to the alternate version of
Quadrophenia, which contains six songs cut from the final album, several containing story lines and characters excised from the narrative. Some of these songs stand on their own merits -- particularly "We Close Tonight," which popped up in a full
Who version on the expanded
Odds & Sods, and "Joker James" -- and the overall album is stronger without them, and that's part of what makes this rough draft so compelling: it provides insight into
Townshend's creative process as he sculpted, edited, and crafted this complex concept album. Also, hearing
Quadrophenia as solo recordings from
Townshend -- he's responsible for every sound here, all the guitars, drums, piano, and analog synths -- underlines the autobiography at its core, pushing his vulnerability and passion to the center. Some of these recordings have shown up elsewhere, either on
Pete's
Scoop collections or bootlegs, but context counts: having these demos assembled as a full album gives them weight and force that will prove to be undeniable to any hardcore
Who fan. It's such an enveloping experience that they may be able to forgive the occasional oddities and frustrations elsewhere in the Super Deluxe Edition -- most notably that DVD, which puzzlingly contains only eight highlights, not the full album, something that's bound to frustrate anybody shelling out over 100 dollars for this box -- because what is
Quadrophenia, anyway, other than a celebration of our human imperfections? ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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