Rating: Five star
If you had to choose just one album to define the 'rock' genre in its purest form, this has to be it.
The Who's legendary Live At Leeds LP, released in the year of its recording with just six tracks, has, 31 years later, been overhauled to take in the full unabridged Leeds University gig.
If it proves anything, it proves The Who were one of the few bands which actually knew how to create and release tension before building to a final crushing, all-destroying climax, rather like a fine thriller.
Nail-hard one second, soft as feathers the next, Townshend, Daltrey, Moon and Entwistle's real muscle lay in their ability to sing entirely from the same hymn sheet without wavering for more than two hours - via some rollercoaster musical acrobatics.
The hits Substitute, I'm A Boy, My Generation etc are raucous but still fresh, hammered out with the clout of the Industrial Revolution.
But this deluxe edition now allows us to feast on the whole of The Who's 53-minute rock-opera, Tommy, performed that evening.
Sometimes indulgent, other times preposterous, but totally compelling.
A sumptuously packaged affair with detailed liner notes, this should be your Desert Island Disc. Rock on Tommy.
- JS
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