10 Most Overrated Rock Albums Of The '70s

For many Who fans, Pete Townsend’s embrace of prog and rock operas spelled a bright new dawn for the group. Once purveyors of brief blasts of mod sound, in the late ‘60s, spearheaded by the guitarist, the group took a far more ambitious approach.

While 1969’s Tommy is more outrageously pretentious, Who’s Next features some pretty embarrassing bits of dad rock of its own. Most of the tracks stretch past the five minute mark and feature fantastical imagery and endless synth workouts that can sound great when clipped, but stretch the patience over a full, long song.

Frontman Roger Daltrey is at his most egregious here, too, shrieking at every chance he gets, most notably on endless closer “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.

Bands should be encouraged to evolve, of course, but Townsend’s songwriting here is often self indulgent to the point of parody, or charmlessly self pitying - “Behind Blue Eyes”. They’d follow this up with yet more rock opera business before briefly returning to short sharp stuff.