Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.124) - Ranked #113 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "[I]t was a send-up of consumer culture, and the band's first stab at a concept album."

Rolling Stone (10/28/99, p.107) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...SELL OUT is the most successful concept album ever...To hear these 13 tracks is to be transported to the wistful, alternatingly painful and joyous territory that was the Who's...adolescence."

Melody Maker (7/22/95, p.36) - Bloody Essential - "...a masterpiece. A glorious celebration of pop as useless commodity and a commercially corrupted art form....it crosses art-school intelligence with pop flash with neither being cheapened or degraded, and is, as such, a stupendous achievement..."

Q (Magazine) (p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Revisiting it now, you can hear a hint of the monolithic rock that would make The Who a stadium act in the '70s, and the knowing humour that would inspire the best of such Britpop disciples as Pulp and Blur."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.117) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[W]hat truly defines SELL OUT is its deference to the well-rehearsed language of pop. Kinks-like character vignettes and PET SOUNDS-parroting textures are the dominant influences."

NME (Magazine) (7/22/95, p.49) - 9 (out of 10) - "...Townshend finally free of shackles....a stream of brittle, spangly pop songs...which are simply otherworldly....Like all truly great albums, SELL OUT isn't overrated. It's simply that you might not be ready for it yet."

Record Collector (magazine) (p.87) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "'I Can See For Miles' was the powerhouse....'I Can't Reach You' and 'Rael' both strayed beyond the previous template of the accepted notions of pop, rich in motifs that would return more fully-formed on TOMMY."

Uncut (magazine) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[A]s this package joyously proves, they never made anything more entertaining or endearing."