After the weird, dull All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, <\/i>not to mention the official retirement of the Who for the foreseeable future, Pete Townshend returned to conceptual storytelling and relatively straight-ahead songwriting on White City. <\/i>The result remains one of his best solo albums and, frankly, a bright spot in the morass of pop music that was 1985.<\/p>\n
The standout song, the one that appears on all the compilation, is the six-minute whipsaw mechanical pop of \u201cFace The Face,\u201d which cranks up the volume on a drum machine, adds a cool bass riff and sax solo, and then tacks on some wordplay-esque lyrics about learning from past mistakes in order to move forward (You must have heard the cautionary tales \/ The dangers hidden on the cul-de-sac trails \/ From wiser men who have been through it all \/ And the ghosts of failures spray-canned up on the wall\u201d). Any good Quadrophenia <\/i>fan knows all about The Face as a symbol of Mod culture, adding a layer of self-reference to the song. But the piece is easily one of the most pulse-racing pop songs in Townshend\u2019s entire output, not to mention one with more muscle than most \u201880s pop. Even the half-speed introduction is just cool<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive Blood,\u201d the leadoff track, brings in recently-unemployed guitarist David Gilmour for a decent rock song with melancholy lyrics about people-pleasing; Gilmour\u2019s guitar is instantly recognizable, and he would join Townshend for a few shows on the ensuing tour, all smiles and dancing. \u201cHiding Out\u201d explores a light African rhythm and some nice harmony singing, a foreshadow of Paul Simon\u2019s Graceland <\/i>the following year and proof that the ever-ambitious Townshend is always striving, always reaching. Only \u201cBrilliant Blues\u201d sounds like an early Who knockoff, in the vein of \u201cThe Kids Are All Right,\u201d but it\u2019s a pleasant three minutes and a necessary bridge given its placement on the album.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecondhand Love\u201d is another standout, a confident midtempo pop-rocker with some great growl-singing by Pete and one that shows off its \u201880s trappings, but in an appealing way. \u201cCrashing By Design\u201d isn\u2019t as successful in this vein musically but features some typically soul-searching, honest lyrics about self-destruction from Townshend: \u201cIn your single-roomed flat in a courtyard building \/ You sit alone just like a broken toy \/ Where’s your mother, where’s your lover and where are the children \u2026 Another man without a woman \/ Too many rages have cost you this time.\u201d That vulnerability remains one of Townshend\u2019s most endearing qualities, not to mention a rarity in rock music, especially in the \u201880s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Am Secure\u201d is an odd tune, half pop instrumental and half reflective acoustic song, but better is \u201cWhite City Fighting,\u201d in which Gilmour reappears to add guitar as Townshend sings about looking back on a youth filled with violence. Gilmour actually wrote the song for his own 1984 solo disc About Face <\/i>but couldn\u2019t come up with suitable lyrics; upon hearing what Townshend wrote, Gilmour simply gave the song away. <\/p>\n
The theme running through the album, however loosely connected, deals with urban decay and disillusionment, violence, and the meaning of being a man, especially in the White City area of West London near where Townshend grew up. The mix of autobiography, vulnerability, solid lyrics, and mostly-great songs makes this recommended listening for Townshend\/Who fans and easily one of the man\u2019s best solo albums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7566],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44657","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pete-townshend","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44657"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}