The Best Of The Who: The Millennium Collection
The Best of the Who? Well, perhaps. This set does contain 9 of the 16 Top 40 hits the Who scored in the U.S. between 1967 and '82. But try as they did early on to be a chart-topping act, the Who's career ultimately isn't about hit singles; it's more about Pete Townshend's grand concept albumsTommyandQuadropheniaand the seminal concert recordingLive at Leeds--works that, by and large, don't reduce well to brief anthologies. That said, there's still some great material here. "My Generation" still reigns as the ultimate punk anthem; the kinetic "Magic Bus"; the searching "I Can See for Miles; and the titanic "Won't Get Fooled Again" all rank with rock's great tunes. At the very least, this collection will whet your appetite for some of the great individual titles from the Who's extensive catalog.--Daniel Durchholz