The Who - WHO [nov 23rd]

[liebzz]

Who Are You - of the Keith Moon era albums, I would have to place this on the bottom. While there are certainly highlights here, like the title track, Trick of the Light, and Guitar and Pen, this album lacks the punch that is typical of a Who album, maybe having to do with Moon’s declining health. Where the synthesizers were used to great effect on Who’s Next and Quadrophenia, here they take over the songs and seem like compensation for what’s missing from what was such a great dynamic force of these 4 individuals. It’s not a bad album so much as just doesn’t measure up to the greatness of all the albums that preceded it.

[joostone]

New album is out now, it's a fun listen. Fits well with their other post Keith Moon album. Offcourse doesnt hold a candle to their essential work, but still fun to here these guys at this age.

[liebzz]

I am going to give that a listen probably in a few days and after I complete the remainder of the albums since I only have 3 to go.

I am slightly delayed on this sadly, wanted to time it so it was seamless.

[liebzz]

Face Dances - I have to say that I think Kenney Jones made an admirable effort to fill in for the irreplaceable, but I don’t think that his drumming style fits The Who at all. Where Moon’s total lack of orthodoxy brought a sense of danger and an edge to The Who, Kenney Jones is a little too safe. He would fit great drumming with the Grateful Dead, but it sort of does nothing for these songs. The songs are mostly mediocre, save for the Entwistle songs, which are awesome - which makes me think more was going on with Townshend than Jones. The Quiet One and You are the clear winners on this album to me, bar none.

[liebzz]

It’s Hard - this album seems very up and down, but for me, it’s a good improvement from Face Dances. The songs have a bit more pop to them, and the band seem to meld more around Kenney Jones, whose contribution to Face Dances was districting fills that did not feel like they belonged on a Who album. Athena, It’s Your Turn, Cooks County, Dangerous, One At a Time, and Why Did I Fall For That are all good songs, while I’ve Known No War is great and the winner here. Cry If You Want is also quite good. Now the weird: Eminence Front. I can never quite decide if I like this song. I appreciate the reach and there being no vocals for the first third of the song and then it being Pete instead of Roger. But it’s also really trapped in that 80s rubric if not catchingly so.

Really I like that this album reaches for something more than playing it safe. It was a good first last album. Two more to go!

[liebzz]

Endless Wire - perhaps it has to do with the fact that this was the first album of theirs that came out while I could have been cognizant of new Who material, but I have always had a soft spot for this album. I love that they acknowledge themselves as adults but still rock out without subjecting themselves to outmoded geezers. Mike Post Theme, It’s Not Enough, We Got a Hit, and Mirror Door are great examples of this. Fragments seems like a fascinating call back to Who’s Next or at least those days with a solid acknowledgement of their present being: instead of busting out the familiar power chords off that synth line, they opt for interwoven acoustic sounds to lesser but valuable effect. No one would mistake 2006 Who for 1971 Who, and they tell you from the outset they don’t expect you to, but manage to keep that identity intact. That’s a trick many reformed bands fail to deliver on.

And in the end, the album has its own virtue and isn’t tied to its past even if it relates to it conceptually.

This is their second last album and would say, as a highlight, that Tea & Theatre would have been a fitting goodbye, but even now with an album just dropping now 13 years later, I’m glad I will have a chance to hear it next.

[liebzz]

WHO - I really liked this on first listen. The starting punch of All This Music Must Fade, Ball and Chain, I Don’t Wanna Get Wise, and Detour has great punch and establishes them as pushing forward rather than punching in. I felt from there it was a little fade as I wasn’t crazy about Beads on One String, Hero Ground Zero, or Street Song, but it picked back up with the acoustic I’ll Be Back. Break the News might be an early favorite. The rest of the album is all solid. I particularly enjoyed Got Nothing to Prove, which sounds like a young Who singing over an elder Who orchestral composition. This is stronger I think than the other post Moon albums. While I really liked Endless Wire, it seemed at times the concept was the reason to exist, where here the freedom of lacking a coherent agenda let’s them be them at this present time, which maybe out of date, but hard charging nonetheless. It’s not perfect but one would be foolish to expect that.

Edit: I used punch three times in the second sentence. Personal record.

[liebzz]

My guide to The Who after this journey, even though I have listened to them going on 25 years:

Essential Albums: Quadrophenia, Who’s Next, Odds & Sods, The Who By Numbers, Tommy

Also Great Albums: A Quick One, My Generation, The Who Sell Out

Good Albums: WHO, Endless Wire, It’s Hard, Who Are You

Not So Much: Face Dances

Note: not included but absolutely essential Who listening is Live at Leeds. I have only heard the expanded Live at Leeds a time or two, but the original is such a power packed masterpiece of a live album that I am not sure if there are many or any better.

[Kevin Davis]

Tommy - this really is a fantastic epic that on this listen I think says more about the people around Tommy than the kid himself. Cheating moms, cruel bully cousins, creepy uncles, and prostitutes prod and pry and torture him as he remains perfectly still, a terrible insight into humanities morbid curiosities and tendencies. Tommy himself doesn’t even get a personality until Pinball Wizard and even then it’s the observer remarking on his freak ability than anything else. From there, Tommy’s miracle cure turns him into a celebrity and the crush of humanity continues into a cult like following. Much more disturbing than a quick once over in this album. To focus on any individual track I think does a disservice so I won’t other than to say the Overture, Underture and epic finale of We’re Not Gonna Take It/See Me, Feel Me is huge and amazing. Great album even if the individual songs would never hold on their own save for a few.

Tommy is a milestone in my musical life but the (nearly complete) live performance from the Isle of Wight 1970 album surpasses the studio record for me, which always felt a bit inert by comparison -- songs like "Eyesight to the Blind," "Go to the Mirror" (the best track on the album, in my opinion), and "I'm Free" really take off in the context of that raw, power-trio-plus-vocalist context, even if the sonics are a little ragged. There may be some better-sounding recordings from this era that have been released in the last however many years -- I haven't kept up. But this one got a lot of play when I was first getting into the Who, even more than Leeds.

When I listen to the Who these days it's usually Sell Out or the Maximum R&B box set, which has its issues but also nicely compiles some early non-album material ("Dogs" is probably my favorite Who song these days). I also like their BBC Sessions album a lot.

[liebzz]

One of the things I love about The Who is I feel like each of us can connect to albums in a different way. Odds & Sods is special for me because it was my entry point beyond their greatest hits, but The Who By Numbers is that album that just sits with me. For me, their greatest genius is Quadrophenia and Who’s Next, but I connect to those in a very different way than By Numbers. There are very few artists that can get to you in a meaningful way, scratching a totally separate itch from album to album. Typically for me, most artists I know and love are capable of sort of replicating the same experience but in new ways rather than a completely different experience altogether. Tommy is also one of those experiences so it’s awesome that’s the entry point for you.

[joostone]

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-ne ... ho__27946/

[evenslow]

The Who By Numbers - I have always loved this album. Pete discarded the synthesizers momentarily and I think it gives this album a more intimate feel. That said, the songs are still big rock songs. Slip Kid, Success Story, and In a Hand or a Face are great examples of that. However Much I Booze and How Many Friends feel autobiographical. Blue Red and Grey is great - hell Eddie Vedder aped that ukulele riff for Soon Forget. But this is probably the superior song. Pretty much everything here is quality stuff, even though this album doesn’t get as much attention as the major classics.

this one has personal favorite written all over it for me. it really sticks out in their discography as more of a straight forward rock record without all the bells and whistles, and it's all the better for it. However Much I Booze is about as naked and confessional as it gets - something only Townshend could write.

[liebzz]

Yeah, I have always thought of this album as being stripped down, not in an acoustic sense, but just more raw and organic than the others from this same time. I think it is the drawing back on the synthesizers. This is just a real great album. How Many Friends was always that confessional that stuck out to me.