Quadrophenia (1973)

Pete Townshend crafts an empathetic character study of Jimmy, a young working-class London mod wrestling with disillusionment and a four-way split personality. The album ingeniously assigns four distinct musical themes to represent Jimmy's internal turmoil and the four members of The Who, reprising them through sweeping orchestral flourishes and thunderous rock movements. The tragic, cathartic journey towards Brighton's rain-swept cliffs loses its devastating impact if severed from the momentum of the preceding sides.