Detroit Free-Press on Endless Wire

[jimthewhofan at aol.com]

 Brian's review was run by the COLUMBUS DISPATCH yesterday, though the DISPATCH accompanied the review with a pro-Who cover piece in the LIFE section. 
    
 -----Original Message-----
 From: brianinatlanta2001 at yahoo.com
 To: oddsandsods at thewho.net; Relayers at yahoogroups.com; thewho at igtc.com; thewho at igtc.com
 Sent: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 8:21 AM
 Subject: Detroit Free-Press on Endless Wire
 
  http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/ENT04/610290541

ENDLESSLY AVERAGE: The Who's first album in 24 years has some interesting 
moments, but it's no career milestone

October 29, 2006
Email this Print this BY BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC CRITIC

TWO STARS out of four stars

Republic/Universal Records

In stores Tuesday

You can't really talk about the Who in 2006 without talking about semantics: Is 
this Who really the Who? With Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey as sole 
survivors, what exactly is in a name, anyway?

Townshend has dismissed the issue: "This is not the old Who. We never said it 
would be." Fair enough. But it is the Who name, and "Endless Wire" is the first 
album released under it since 1982's "It's Hard," a limp effort that raised 
questions about the group's vitality before an ongoing parade of reunion tours 
raised even more.

Call it a mixed success for classic-rock elders Townshend and Daltrey. The new 
album is neither a daring innovation nor a heavy-handed retread; it falls 
somewhere in between, a record at times quiet and contemplative as it seeks to 
make sense of itself. "Endless Wire" is really a two-part work: nine cuts that 
make up the album proper, and a mini rock opera titled "Wire & Glass" made up of 
10 compact songs.
Townshend -- the disc's songwriter, producer and all-around governing body -- 
winks at his audience early on: With its jittery opening synthesizer sequence, 
"Fragments" quite consciously recalls 1971's "Baba O'Riley," one of a handful of 
nods to classic Who. But the song also introduces the new characters, drummer 
Zak Starkey and bassist Pino Paladino, who contribute effective but unobtrusive 
support throughout.

Lyrically, Townshend is in a familiar mode, his words occasionally biting, more 
often opaque. He jabs at authority amid his ongoing search of spirituality and 
self, as on the album's best cut, "The Man in the Purple Dress." As ever, 
Townshend is an intriguing if frustrating study in contradiction, blasting away 
at the pretensions of others while yielding to his own high-minded artistic 
tendencies throughout "Endless Wire."

The 61-year-old guitarist is one of rock's all-time great rhythm players, and 
with his Gibson strapped on, he provides electric sizzle on such rockers as 
"It's Not Enough," "Sound Round" and "Pick Up the Peace." The guitar work is 
typical Townshend, at times classic Townshend: economical, virile, crisp. He 
provides lovely acoustic work on "God Speaks of Marty Robbins" and "You Stand By 
Me" -- among the gentlest tunes he's penned -- and elsewhere is musically 
playful, pulling out a mandolin for "Two Thousand Years" and a Tom Waits-style 
voice for "In the Ether."

Daltrey's performance is a mixed bag. There are moments of genuine vocal vigor, 
notably the brawny yowling on such cuts as "Mike Post Theme" and "It's Not 
Enough," which ably summon the full-bodied shout he molded for himself in the 
early '70s. But too often, he clumsily forces the drama, plagued by slippery 
pitch as he applies a melodramatic vibrato to his notes.

"Endless Wire," whose interesting moments are too scattered, won't stand 
shoulder-to-shoulder with the best of the Who's albums. But it's not the 
liability it could have been to a legacy that has already taken more than its 
fair share of hits

-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com



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