The Who By Numbers - THE WHO***

Slip Kid/However Much I Booze/Squeeze Box/Dreaming From The Waist/Imagine A Man/Success Story/They Are All In Love/Blue Red & Grey/How Many Friends/In A Hand Or A Face

The Who By Numbers continued the downward trend of The Who with a largely forgettable repertoire of songs. The one exception is the excellent Squeeze Box, a mildly risqué novelty number that reached the UK top ten. (US:8 UK:7)

“Squeeze Box is the closest the band has ever come to a novelty song, lightens the mood a bit, as does John Entwistle's hilarious Success Story, but the moroseness of Townshend's words is what the listener will ultimately take away from this.”

“Most of these tracks were deemed unworthy of a Who album by the Who themselves. Because it's The Who even these unworthy tracks are worth a listen. Not great but the musicianship is still pretty good, even though the material is not.”

“The Who By Numbers is indeed a very good album, without a dud track, and not even the dark, self-analytical, often self-deprecatory lyrics which Pete Townshend wrote for and about himself detract from its overall appeal.”

“At best Who By Numbers is competent hard rock that doesn't quite suck, but in reality this is just an album of forgettable left over feeling songs. I guess The Who were starting to burn out.”

“The songs are brutally honest and, with the exception of the single Squeeze Box, not that commercial, but nevertheless there are some top tunes here.”

“There's an overall sense of exhaustion and lack of ambition to this. I will say that it is superior to any of their subsequent albums, which really shows how far and how fast the quality of The Who's work fell from their peak period.”

“Who By Numbers is stripped down, back-to-the-basics rock and roll. There are no themes, no operettas, no stories running through multiple songs. Instrumentally, it's comparatively bare-bones; most of the songs are just guitar, bass and drums, played to perfection. Lyrically, the album as a whole is as good as anything Pete Townshend has written, though much more understated, thematically.”