Whoesque

Everyone knows the textbook formula for chasing that classic Mod violence. Crank the amplifiers until the tubes melt, swing your arm like a windmill, and let the rhythm section play like they are trying to break through a brick wall. But if you are looking to dig past the mid-sixties blueprint and find something that actually mirrors the massive, synth-driven, heavy-bellied swagger of a track like Who Are You, you are going to be looking for a very long time. Nobody else really possesses the structural engineering required to balance that kind of high-concept arena theatricality with raw, street-level dirt without the whole thing collapsing into a pretentious mess. This particular pick does not bother trying to clone the impossible, choosing instead to tear through the entire genetic family tree of bands who took those chaotic British cues and ran them straight into the red. It is a loud, incredibly arrogant sequence of tracks that holds its ground perfectly, even if it leaves you hunting for a ghost that nobody else could ever actually capture. If you want to trace how these thematic sonic experiments usually turn out when people try to borrow a legendary blueprint, you can check out the previous Zeppelinesque entry to see the path, but don't expect anyone on this list to suddenly pull a synthesizer out of their back pocket.

Whoesque

01 The Attack - Any More Than I Do

02 Cheap Trick - He's A Whore

03 Spacehog - In The Meantime

04 Buzzcocks - Harmony in My Head

05 Thunderclap Newman - Something in the Air

06 The Pretty Things - Don't Bring Me Down

07 Small Faces - Tin Soldier

08 The Birds - You're On My Mind

09 Raspberries - I Don't Know What I Want

10 The Sorrows - Take a Heart

11 Les Fleur De Lys - Mud In Your Eye

12 Mott The Hoople - Violence

13 The Poets - That's The Way It's Got To Be

14 The Creation - Making Time

15 Alarm - Sixty Eight Guns

16 The Action - I'll Keep Holding On (Original 1966 7 Mono Single Version)

17 Eyes - When The Night Falls

18 The Move - Brontosaurus

19 The Jam - Standards

20 Faces - Pool Hall Richard

21 Nazz - Open My Eyes

22 The Clash - 1977