WHO - The Who (2008)

Ideated from: cleaning out the inbox.

There’s so much material out there today from bands plying their former glory to squeeze a little more money out of their fans. An endless parade of remasters, reissues, anniversary editions, vinyl boxes, and studio session tapes guarantee that you’ll never run out of things to buy from the artists of the 60s. And everyone from 50s doo-wop bands to 90s punk bands is out on the road touring the hits at festivals and casinos and state fairs. I don’t really judge. Everybody has to pay the bills, and not every artist has the advantage of good deals on publishing and royalties.

Then there’s the other things older artists do: record new material. I’m kind of fascinated by these new records by old artists. They have to walk that line between sounding like the stuff everybody loves and not just copying their old tricks. It often makes for music that’s well-groomed and professional (since these people have been making music for decades and can afford the very best production) but often not very interesting.

The Who have certainly been guilty of cash-grabbery for the last 30 years or so. I wasn’t expecting much going into this one, because for my money the last end-to-end great Who record came out in 1971. But I’ll be damned if they haven’t done something that’s hard to come by in the modern era: an older artist being honest about how weird and wonderful it is to be elderly rock stars.

Missing from the classic lineup, of course, are drum god Kieth Moon (d. 1978) and one of the best bassists who ever played rock, John Entwistle (d. 2002). The remainder, mastermind Pete Townsend and singer Roger Daltrey, have realized long ago that they’ll never replace those massive talents. But they’ve done a good job here of recruiting session musicians (Pino Palladino on bass, mostly, and drums handled by Zak Starkey and Joey Waronker) who manage to sound like Entwistle and Moon without trying to do the same things they did. Even at an advanced age, we still get some serious crunch from the band in places, as well as the same expansive arena-ready rock we’re used to.

Townsend’s lyrics are measured and thoughtful as always, and sometimes hard to decipher (as always). In an era when guys like Eric Clapton and Van Morrison have become grumpy old conservatives, it’s nice to see that Pete is still open to new experiences and trying to sort them out rather than just telling kids to get off his lawn.

Tracks I Liked

I Don’t Wanna Get Wise - an interesting and mature take from the band that once said “hope I die before I get old”

I’ll Be Back - Townsend has always taken his spiritual life seriously, and he doubles down here thinking about his own death (and reincarnation, i guess? I don’t really know what his thing is, but I know it’s not typical Church of England stuff). As always, he sings his most personal lyrics himself rather than trying to speak through Daltrey, which I appreciate.

Break the News - a tender tune that’s not a typical Townsend song, but is just genuinely a stop and think moment.