What an unholy, fascinating, mess of an album. If this is indeed Pete Townshend\u2019s final solo album of original new material \u2013 and it\u2019s been 23 years, so I\u2019m guessing it is \u2013 he picked a hell of a way to complete his journey.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Psychoderelict <\/i>is a concept album, not really a rock opera but certainly a story with clearly defined characters, a beginning and middle and end of sorts, and all the trappings expected of an hour-long album of this magnitude. It\u2019s not unlike David Bowie\u2019s Outside<\/i>, released with a convoluted story, some good hard rock, and an ambitious concept that overshadowed the whole affair. Neither of these albums gained much traction in the music world of the mid \u201890s, even among longtime fans, but they should not be dismissed either.<\/p>\n
The first major note is that this is the hardest Pete had rocked since Empty Glass<\/i> \u2013 even on the Tommy <\/i>tour in 1989 with all the special guests, he played an acoustic guitar \u2013 and it\u2019s a welcome return to form. Whether it was a response to grunge or a pent-up desire to unleash the noise, songs like \u201cEnglish Boy,\u201d the bass-driven \u201cOutlive The Dinosaur,\u201d and the \u201cMeher Baba\u201d instrumental segments are fine marriages of concept and noise that prove Townshend\u2019s ambition was alive and well in the \u201890s. The \u201cMeher Baba M4\u201d segment actually leans industrial, sampling the synth part from \u201cWho Are You\u201d but adding a booming trip-hop beat and suggesting yet another dimension to Townshend\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n
On a strictly musical basis, the disc is probably in Townshend\u2019s top three, much better than The Iron Giant <\/i>(which preceded this by four years), inasmuch as it showcases all facets of the artist. And whether you came on board with The Who or with \u201cLet My Love Open The Door\u201d you will find something here to love. Certainly, \u201cOutlive The Dinosaur\u201d is one of the coolest songs Townshend had written since \u201cFace The Face\u201d in 1985, letting the bass guitar be the lead instrument, adding some acoustic guitar coloring, and delivering the vocals in a sort of clenched, sardonic whisper. \u201cHope I die before I get old\u201d has now given way to \u201cTime is generous, more take more \/ I must outlive the dinosaur.\u201d <\/p>\n
The quirky side of Townshend is on display on \u201cLet\u2019s Get Pretentious\u201d and \u201cNow And Then,\u201d while the always-endearing vulnerable side appears in both the album\u2019s concept and on \u201cI Am Afraid,\u201d wherein Pete bares his soul to God: \u201cBy my religion I stand here naked \/ I cannot fake it with God as witness\u2026I am afraid \/ As I stand beside you \/ I have denied you.\u201d However, at the bloated run time, the songs don\u2019t keep up this level of quality, tapering off after the jaunty rave-up \u201cPredictable,\u201d with a couple more \u201cMeher Baba\u201d pieces and some other originals that restate previous themes to lesser results. <\/p>\n
But that is the music side. The other side of the record is the story, and rather than tell it through the lyrics like Quadrophenia<\/i>, Townshend brings in actors to read from a script. Thus, about half the songs have snippets of dialogue at the beginning (or, worse, in the middle) that explain the story and move it along. It\u2019s a huge momentum killer and a pretty annoying distraction\u2026not least because the story isn\u2019t all that convoluted. Recognizing this, and noticing the flagging sales, the record company released a version of the album subtitled Music Only<\/i>, omitting all of this dialogue. It vastly improved the record; however, it\u2019s pretty tough to find.<\/p>\n
The story is a critical look at the relationship between the media, fans and musicians as well as the mental travails of a once-popular rock star, written (as you may have guessed) by Townshend essentially about himself, at least as a starting point. Ray High is a former \u201860s rocker who was quite popular but has slipped into obscurity; his manager Rastus is desperate to get him to record something new and goes to local rock-music reporter Ruth Streeting to complain. The two concoct a scheme by pretending to be a 15-year-old fan of Ray\u2019s named Rosalyn, sending him a naked picture and a love letter, and Ray responds to the connection with notes and lyrics and a demo of a song from his unreleased Gridlife <\/i>project, believing he has found a kindred spirit. Once the affair is exposed, \u201cthe resulting controversy drives sales of \u201cRosalyn\u2019s\u201d record as well as Ray\u2019s back catalog. The manager is happy to be making bank, but an upset Ray confronts Ruth, first to ask why she would throw Rosalyn and himself under the bus, then eventually to say he knew it was Ruth all along. Whether out of guilt or genuine attraction, Ruth decides to produce Ray\u2019s new album, the long-abandoned Gridlife, <\/i>and the story pretty much ends.<\/p>\n
The obvious connections here deal in satire about media and manager manipulation, shopworn clich\u00e9s about alcoholic ex-rock stars and Townshend\u2019s own history, including his famous abandoned project Lifehouse<\/i>, which he finally completed and rolled out in the late \u201890s to a certain extent. Gridlife <\/i>even includes a sample of \u201cBaba O\u2019Riley\u201d to drive this point home. But Psychoderelict <\/i>never feels like it\u2019s that pretentious or autobiographical, which is to Townshend\u2019s credit. <\/p>\n
Audacious, ambitious, and frustrating, the record is everything good and bad about Townshend the solo artist. It\u2019s worth hearing for fans, even if they\u2019re not likely to return to it as often as, say, White City <\/i>or Empty Glass<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7566],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44658","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pete-townshend","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44658","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=44658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44658"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}