Quadrophenia by The Who

Quadrophenia, the Who's sixth studio album, came out as a double album on Track on 26 October 1973, and it's their third rock opera, after the mini-opera "A Quick One, While He's Away" and Tommy. It's a celebration of their mod roots, set in London and Brighton in 1965 and following Jimmy, a young mod scrambling to find some sense of his own worth. Pete Townshend wrote every note of it, the only Who album he wrote entirely on his own.

Getting it made was a slog. Work started in 1972 as the follow-up to Tommy and Who's Next, but John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey were off making solo records and Keith Moon was busy with films, and the band's new studio wasn't ready, so they used Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio. Their relationship with manager Kit Lambert fell apart during the sessions, and he was gone by the time the record came out. None of that dents the music. Townshend's multi-tracked synthesizers and sound effects wash over everything, Entwistle stacks up horn parts like a brass section, Moon thrashes like a hurricane, and "The Real Me" and "Love Reign O'er Me" are torn wide open at full throttle. "5:15" is a runaway train of a song.

It was well received on both sides of the Atlantic, though the tour stumbled over backing tapes standing in for the extra instruments, and the stage show was shelved in early 1974. It came back in 1996 and toured again in 2012, and it fed the late-'70s mod revival and a successful 1979 film.

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