or better or worse, we here at Stylus, in all of our autocratic consumer-crit greed, are slaves to timeliness. A record over six months old is often discarded, deemed too old for publication, a relic in the internet age. That's why each week at Stylus, one writer takes a look at an album with the benefit of time. Whether it has been unjustly ignored, unfairly lauded, or misunderstood in some fundamental way, we aim with On Second Thought to provide a fresh look at albums that need it.

The original concept was simple. The Who would write songs or jingles about certain products and sell the songs to the manufacturers for use in future ads. The Who wrote songs/jingles about Heinz Baked Beans, Odorono deodorant, Medac pimple cream, Charles Atlas, Coca-Cola, Premier Drums, Rotosound Strings, and Jaguar with this intention. The manufacturers would gain credibility among the youth by being associated with The Who and the The Who, in turn, would receive a truckload of cash. Blatant commercialism at its best. But, there was a slight problem with their plan. None of the companies wanted to buy their songs. Keith Moon managed to get a free drum kit from Premier, but, other than that, the concept was a total failure. Luckily, The Who (more accurately, The Who’s managers) had a second concept, a typical hour on a typical pirate radio station. Complete with public service announcements, station identifications, and of course the previously recorded commercials in between their new songs. An interesting concept (much more interesting than just "selling out", or a deaf, dumb, blind kid turned pinball playing messiah for that matter), but does it work as an album? Surprising, yes. Of course, it helped that the songs in between the commercials were halfway decent.

The opener, "Armenia City in the Sky", which was written by Townshend’s chauffeur/Thunderclap Newman drummer Speedy John Keene, is a psychedelic classic. It features distorted horns floating above Pete Townshend’s power chords as Roger Daltrey’s sped up voice intones lines such as "the sky is glass/the sea is brown/and everyone/is upside down". Equally classic is the album’s only single, the great "I Can See For Miles". It was so loved by Townshend that he once called it "the ultimate Who record". A claim that I certainly won’t argue with, everything that is great about The Who is here, Townshend’s power chords, Keith Moon’s frantic drum fills, Daltrey’s menacing vocal delivery, and John Entwistle’s bass holding it all together. Of course, the same can be said for the majority of The Who’s singles, but Townshend and Moon’s guitar solo/drum fill "duel" in the middle section puts it over the top.

The remainder of the album has a far more melodic tone with Townshend switching to an acoustic guitar and the rest of the band being relegated to the background (even lead singer Daltrey, who only sings the lead on six of the original album’s 13 songs). Surprisingly, The Who’s sound is just as potent, especially on tracks such as "Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand", "Tattoo", "Our Love Was", and "Sunrise".

And...of course there’s the commercials, three of which were full length songs, Keith Moon and John Entwistle’s Monty Python-esque "Heinz Baked Beans", Pete Townshend’s poppy "Odorono", and Entwistle’s straight from the ad copy "Medac". None of which I would consider a great song (or a good song for that matter), but they each exude a certain comic charm which more than makes up for their shortcomings.

The 1995 reissue of The Who Sell Out includes 10 additional tracks, each of which is on par with the quality of the actual album tracks (with the exception of Keith Moon’s god awful "Girl’s Eyes"). Highlights: The manic "Jaguar", the horn fueled "Someone’s Coming", Daltrey’s finest composition, "Early Morning Cold Taxi", their take on Grieg’s "Hall of the Mountain King", and the Tommy anticipating "Glow Girl". Had The Who packaged these tracks along with late ‘67 era singles such as "Pictures of Lily", "Call Me Lightning", and "Dogs" we might have had two classic Who albums from 1967 instead we only have one. But, then again hindsight is always 20/20.