Artist: Who, The
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 2006
Rating: 3/5
We’ve finally got them back, after almost 24 years of assorted “reunion” tours, infighting, media speculation, hearing loss and, last but not least, the deaths of some of The WHO’s founding members. Today Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and The WHO proudly stand before us with their new record, ENDLESS WIRE. So heads up: this could well be one of the last gasps of legends like The WHO. No looking back at the glory days, no pretending we’re dealing with the once-deafening wall-of-sound wreckers and gear destroyers they used to be: band boss Townshend says they’re simply not offering us the old The WHO this time, just “something different”. So let’s get to know the new The WHO!
After all these years, the new (senior) The Who sound very fresh and relaxed, and it looks like the long break gave them a new lease on life, while the usual welcome and unwelcome events gave them a fresh push. The new look suits the band, though to my taste they sound a bit too relaxed at moments.
The album as a whole is split into two parts. The second part is basically a version of the mini rock opera “Wire & Glass” (The Who always had a soft spot for those, remember the still regularly spun rock opera “Tommy”), which The WHO already put out as a standalone single this past summer.
ENDLESS WIRE kicks off with a typical The WHO “Baba ‘O Riley”-style intro titled “Fragments”. It’s a highly conceptual affair, inspired by Pete’s web novella called “The Boy Who Heard Music”. I won’t even get into what this track means, since barely anyone but Pete himself knows. The same goes for all the other pretentiously conceptual stuff on this album; I’ll leave its meaning to each individual listener to interpret. The individual fragments are built from piercing drumming, electronic noodling and a vocal call from Daltrey and Townshend in the style of the “Who Are You” era, which after 28 years still sounds relevant.
The rest of the first half of the album fits with the above. “Mike Post Theme”, for example, is a charming mid-tempo track that radiates maturity and the healthy kind of love that usually shows up with the later years the two main seniors of The WHO now find themselves in. “Black Widow’s Eyes”, together with the single “I’ve Had Enough”, makes for a solid rock track that uncompromisingly digs into life’s big existential questions about falling in love, choosing partners, and the people we value and cherish most, regardless of their status or the thickness of their wallet.
That “something different” is first served up by an acoustic The WHO (something we’re not used to from them) on “Two Thousand Years”, “God Speaks To Marty Robbins” and the far-too-short gem “You Stand By Me”. The arrangements have a spiritual, psychedelic-tinged backdrop with carefully thought-out mandolin work. Townshend proves once again that he’s an outstanding lyricist, and even though this material isn’t some big hit-and-comeback moment (which isn’t the album’s goal anyway, even if most of you probably expect exactly that from The WHO), the songs come across as solid. Overall they’re a commendable nod of respect to the past and the present, but again without too much pomp and noise. The WHO are simply quietly reminding us they’re here and back in the music world. “Man In A Purple Dress” is a nice example of that, and it also has one of the better lyrics Townshend has put together as a songwriter so far. It’s about how some of us condemn and glorify certain individuals.
The chorus goes: “Men above men or prats in your high hats/How dare you be the one to assess/Me in this god forsaken mess/You a man in a purple dress”. That’s roughly how Townshend sings about his view of the pretentious “priest”, while the song also hints at the good old The WHO. According to some unofficial polls, the most popular band of all time among Brits is, against expectations, not The Beatles but The WHO. Hard to say what’s behind that, but it definitely proves these guys really are rock giants.
That wraps up the first official part of ENDLESS WIRE, followed by the second, the aforementioned mini rock opera “Wire And Glass”. Up to here we all know what’s what and how. The second part, though, is something else entirely, and in my opinion that’s exactly what Townshend had in mind when he talked about something completely different. As I said, the main inspiration came from Townshend’s internet novella “The Boy Who Heard Music”. Apart from two exceptions, the Broadway-style “In the Ether” and “Like Fragments”, the second part carries much more weight overall and gives the album that real touch of greatness. Tracks like “Sound Round”, “Pick Up The Peace”, “We Got A Hit” and “Mirror Door” could easily be called the best The WHO have ever released. Equally inspiring is the emotionally tinged “We Made Our Dreams Come True”. This time the material is played in a “we’re past sixty, so don’t nag us and let us breathe” style. The songs are generally well tuned, well played and future-focused. The new touring lineup deserves a special mention, picked precisely to play and set the place on fire. The only problem is that Pete, as songwriter and producer, decided to release these songs in the form of a shortened mini opera. That means, at best, each track gets a good two minutes, following the example of the recently released maxi-single “Wire And Glass”. The extended version they’re offering us this time stays unchanged. The only exception is “Unholy Trinity” with Pete’s shuffling around, which at best can be described as musical glue or filler for “Trilbys Piano” and the experimental “Fragments Of Fragments”, which is exactly that (ed. note: a fragment of a fragment) or simply wasted space on the album.
What I personally find most frustrating about ENDLESS WIRE is that you can feel some rising greatness the whole way through, yet it never actually breaks through. While the first half of the album hints at and promises something in that direction, you’d logically expect the second half to complete it. Instead it leaves us somewhere halfway, wandering and lonely, with only three of ten tracks in full form. Two of the ten are included as bonus material in the full version, and all we can do is ask why, after a 23-year break, they didn’t treat us to all ten in that format. Maybe it’s just a marketing move, dangling the hook, and more is still to come, but you’ll definitely have to pay for it and buy yet another album. Who knows?!
If we compare the weak acoustic tracks served up in the first part with the musical filler of the second, even the most casual listener soon realizes it’s basically a mash-up of old and new The WHO. Definitely with a surplus of unleashed Townshend this time, who in the past was certainly held back by the Daltrey-Entwistle duo. This time, though, he turns The WHO into his personal vehicle to finally realize and unveil his own conceptual ideas. The trouble is that without the author’s personal explanatory notes they’d be pointless, or simply incomprehensible. And however ambitious and interesting they may be, some of them are better left written down on paper than brought to life through music. Instead of Bach’s winning recipe of “less is more”, The WHO took the wrong path this time and tried to give us too much, and an approach like that can easily suffocate the average random listener and the youngsters who are meeting The WHO for the first time these days. The rock operas consequently get a warning sticker and a red light.
In the end we can ask: is this The WHO as we know them? The answer would be: of course it is. Even if it’s really a Pete-and-Roger mash-up, or duo. We have to remember that these “senior” gentlemen are at an enviable age and that this is most likely one of their last shots, so we should be happy with what’s on offer and not too nitpicky. The songs themselves are mature, sad and hopeful all at once, at times downright melancholic. The album has its ups and downs and they could easily have given us more, but Townshend took the lead in making the record, and the product reflects that. Simply put, it’s written to suit him. If I’m being a bit nasty, you could easily compare it to a Roger Waters record. If we focus on what’s good about the album, we can sum it up as a good and strong piece of work.
The main thing about ENDLESS WIRE is that after 23 years it’s really nice to hear that wailing vocal again, joined by punchy guitar chords and thunderous drumming, and that’s what The WHO are. “Long live ROCK,” someone once said… be they dead or alive.
Lineup
Roger Daltrey – vocals
Pete Townshend – everything else
John “Rabbit” Bundrick – Hammond organ
Simon Townshend – backing vocals
Pino Palladino – bass guitar
Zak Starkey – drums
Tracklist
1. Fragments
2. Man in a Purple Dress
3. Mike Post Theme
4. In the Ether
5. Black Widow’s Eyes
6. Two Thousand Years
7. God Speaks of Marty Robbins
8. It’s Not Enough
9. You Stand by Me
10. Sound Round
11. Pick Up the Peace
12. Unholy Trinity
13. Trilby’s Piano
14. Endless Wire
15. Fragments of Fragments
16. We Got a Hit
17. They Made My Dream Come True
18. Mirror Door
19. Tea & Theatre
