Album Reviews

True, The Who were once called The High Numbers, but can you imagine a more self-loathing album title than The Who By Numbers? Painting by numbers or doing anything by "the numbers" usually connotes rote work. It was an honest assessment of the album.

By the time this Who album was issued in 1975, Pete Townshend had traded the youthful exuberance and bluster of his most creative period for unfinished, burnt out self-confessionals fueled by fear of impending middle age. It's where he found himself in life and it became a necessary act of self-clarification and contrition.

The Who By Numbers is not so much a Who album as a Townshend solo album with backing by his bandmates. Things start out well with the powerful "Slip Kids," but that's followed by the drinking confessional "However Much I Booze" that sounds as if its based on a purloined Doobie Brothers riff that Daltry can't wrap his brain around and then comes the sing-song "Squeeze Box," which might have been more charming had it been on a solo project like Rough Mix. Townshend expresses his sexual frustrations on the excessively talky "Dreaming From the Waist." The side ends well, though, with the soaring, melodic "Imagine A Man."

Side two is stronger, with Entwistle’s “Success Story” punching through, though it’s followed by the wallowing of “They Are All in Love” ( “But like a woman in childbirth, Grown ugly in a flash, I’ve seen magic and fame, Now I’m recycling trash”). The uplift of the gorgeous “Blue Red And Grey” highlights the side followed by the soaring tunefulness, self-pity and homophobic paranoia of “How Many Friends.” The short album ends on a high note with the powerful “In A Hand Or A Face.”

So, no, this isn’t The Who’s best album, or one of Pete Townshend’s finest moment, but it was the last Who album on which a still healthy Keith Moon plays and was, arguably, the last Who album worthy of the group’s name. Who Are You, issued three years later, had its moments, but by that time Moon was seriously hobbled by alcohol and drugs and his playing on the album, aside from on the title tune, was weak. He died a month after the album’s release. Classic will soon release the album, along with Face Dances and It’s Hard.

So there’s enough here for true Who fans to grasp and want to hear on a well produced vinyl reissue, which this certainly is sonically and physically. Both the UK Polydor and U.S. MCA pressing were sourced from a Doug Sax (incorrectly spelled “Sachs” on the original) lacquer cut on his TML-M lathe (TML short for “The Mastering Lab”). Because of better plating and pressing quality, the UK original sounds much better than the American. The original UK edition was a limited numbered series (my copy is No. 143073 so I’m not sure how “limited” it really was!).

Given the producer/engineer, you can expect and you’ll get a well produced, well organized and well recorded album featuring drums that pop, cymbals that shimmer and acoustic guitars that exude harmonic complexity. This was originally a fine sounding production and so is the reissue.

Classic’s 200g Super Vinyl Profile reissue faithfully duplicates the original’s cover art and paper stock, changing only the mastering credit from “Sachs” at The Mastering Lab, Los Angeles, to Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Also included is a full sized stapled, glossy stock booklet “The Story of The Who” that was not included in the high numbered copy I have but which reproduces a ticket for a 1976 Who concert taking place seven months after the album was released. Call me confused!

The Sax mastered Polydor original is slightly warmer than the reissue, but not nearly as dynamic and detailed. This is not a bright sounding reissue. Not before demagnetization and certainly not after. As for the pressing quality, Classic has worked diligently with Ken Smith Mastering to get the quality where it belongs. This slab of vinyl is a physical thing of beauty and was dead silent from lead in to lead out grooves on both sides.

A stellar reissue in every way.