The Who – Tommy (1969) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2012 # UIGY-9089]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 74:51 minutes | Scans included | 3,01 GB

Tommy is the fourth album by English rock band The Who, released by Track Records and Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and Decca Records/MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a “deaf, dumb and blind boy” who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was the first musical work to be billed overtly as a rock opera. Released in 1969, the album was mostly composed by Pete Townshend. In 1998 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “historical, artistic and significant value”. It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. This edition uses the 2012 DSD master based on UK original analog tape. Reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-SACD format (fully compatible with standard SACD player, but it does not play on standard CD players). (more…)

The Who – The Who Sell Out (1967) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2012 # UIGY-9092]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 78:31 minutes | Scans included | 3,17 GB

Uses the 2012 DSD master based on UK original analog tape. Reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-SACD format (fully compatible with standard SACD player, but it does not play on standard CD players). DSD transferred by Jon Astley.

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). [Subsequent reissues added over half a dozen interesting outtakes from the time of the sessions, as well as unused commercials, the B-side “Someone’s Coming,” and an alternate version of “Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand.” (more…)

The Who – The Singles (1984) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011 # UIGY-9067]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 92:47 minutes | Scans included | 3,75 GB

Uses the 2011 DSD master based on UK original analog tape (subject to change). Reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-SACD format (fully compatible with standard SACD player, but it does not play on standard CD players).

One imagines that this collection was aimed at the total neophyte listener — taken in any other context, this is an odd collection of single sides by one of the premiere singles bands of the 1960s and early ’70s. Does it start at the beginning, with either “I’m the Face” or “I Can’t Explain”? No. Does it encompass many of the freestanding singles issued by this band through 1972? No. Does it even offer any of the less well-known single sides from that period? No — apart from the three-and-a-half-minute single edit of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” which was hardly a sterling example of the format or the genre. Instead, listeners get all of the most familiar hits, albeit in their original mono mixes where relevant: “Substitute,” “I’m a Boy,” “Pictures of Lily,” “I Can See for Miles,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Squeeze Box,” etc. The best of it overlaps with Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, among other collections, so veteran collectors and listeners will find nothing unique here. (more…)