Few bands can go 13 years between albums and pick up where they left off with a release that debuts at #2 on the Billboard charts. But The Who has proven itself a rare exception. Despite the absence of a legendary drummer and bassist in Keith Moon and John Entwistle, Who <\/i>has a number of songs that chime with the unmistakable pairing of Pete Townshend\u2019s guitar and Roger Daltrey\u2019s vocals.<\/p>\n
Does the album feature throwbacks to classics like \u201cMy Generation\u201d or \u201cBehind Blue Eyes? Of course not. And why should Daltrey and Townshend try to recapture their musical youth at this stage of their careers? They act their age on\u00a0Who <\/i>and it shines as a mature album of\u00a0hindsight that packs some punch to show they\u2019ve still got it after 50 years on the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The three singles from the album are solid. \u201cAll This Music Must Fade\u201d packs some punch and makes for a good opener with the chime of Townshend\u2019s guitar and Daltrey\u2019s balance of calm and bellowing vocals. Their cynicism on the music industry is mixed with some tongue-in-cheek reflection on their troubled working relationship:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never really got along\u00a0
It’s not new, not diverse
It won’t light up your parade
It’s just simple verse
All this music will fade\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBall And Chain\u201d is a re-recording of a Pete Townshend solo number, and it makes me smile with a respect for the men. After 50 years and 12 studio albums, they\u2019re still willing to stick it to the authorities on contemporary with lyrics such as \u201cDown in Guantanamo \/ We still got the ball and chain \/ There\u2019s a long road to travel \/ For justice to make its claim.\u201d The third single, \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Get Wise,\u201d is unspectacular but still gets some solid vocals from Roger Daltrey at the age of 75.\u00a0One can only respect the performance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arguably the best songs on Who <\/i>are those buried in the second half of the\u00a0album. \u201cHero Ground Zero\u201d is one of the more melodic numbers and was well-received by the crowd when I saw the band play in Toronto in September 2019.\u00a0\u201cBreak The News\u201d is a softer one but probably my favorite. An acoustic number written by Simon Townshend, it has a certain stomp and simplicity to it that reminds me of Queen\u2019s \u201c\u201939,\u201d with a touching vocal from Daltrey that has a bit of retrospect in its lyrics. \u201cThis Gun Will Misfire\u201d is another standout. One of three bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of the album, Townshend takes center stage with his growling vocals on the state of political affairs with clever quips such as:\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s a message in Afghanistan \/ Opium wins the toss \/ Charlie Wilson, the communists \/ They had to take a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, there\u2019s still a bit of \u00a0rivalry between the last standing members of The Who. They wrote and recorded separately for the album, interview separately with occasional jabs, and rarely interacted when I saw them play a show in September 2019. But there\u2019s something about a bit of rivalry that just adds to their songwriting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If there is one stain on Who<\/i> it is the inclusion of\u00a0\u201cGot Nothing To Prove,\u201d a\u00a0shoddy demo from the 1960s reject bin, tacked on as a bonus track. Wedged between two original recordings on the deluxe version, it sounds like a reject from a Monkees album and only shows how far Townshend and Daltrey have come as songwriters. The clashing of new and old bonus tracks captures what I expect fans\u2019 reception of album to be: those who bemoaned 2006\u2019s Endless Wire <\/i>and pined for the olden days will praise the demo as the lone standout on the album. Those of us who saw Endless Wire<\/i> as an enjoyable maturation of the Townshend \/ Daltrey duo will quite enjoy this new one.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":33988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5649],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45816","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-who","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45816","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45816"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}