Music

The Who’s first album of new material since 1982 harks back self-consciously to their golden period: broadly, 1969 to 1974, after which Pete Townshend’s songs became overly preoccupied with the difficulties of writing for The Who (‘However Much I Booze’, ‘New Song’, ‘Music Must Change’). The opener ‘Fragments’ is a clear declaration of intent, reworking the ‘Baba O’Riley’ synth motif and ushering in an assortment of belligerent rockers (‘Mike Post Theme’), delicate folk ballads (‘You Stand By Me’) and, oddly, three songs inspired by a viewing of Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’, the strongest of which is the Dylanesque

‘A Man In A Purple Dress’. Best of all is ‘Wire & Glass’, the opaque  but rather beautiful ‘mini rock opera’ that kicks in after nine songs. It’s a while – ‘Quadrophenia’, to be precise – since Townshend has written anything as good as ‘Sound Round’, ‘Pick Up The Peace’ and ‘We Got A Hit’, so a shame that none of them lasts much more than a minute.

The copy-book is not unblotted. ‘Mirror Door’ is lame self-parody, cursed with the worst of several wobbly vocal performances from Daltrey. (He had a throat infection during the recording.) And while Townshend’s guitar work is sensational, and session stalwarts Pino Palladino (bass) and Peter Huntington (drums) never less than accomplished, the impression remains of a slightly-too-adept Who tribute outfit. Part of the thrilling tension of The Who was always Keith Moon’s lurches out of time and bassist John Entwistle’s virtuosic attempts to pre-empt and mask them. You register their absence here on a subconscious level, as a sort of critical error in the genetic coding.

Still, no one expected another Who album at this stage of the game, even if it’s really a Townshend solo album with Daltrey singing. That ‘Endless Wire’ exists at all is incredible. That it’s as good as it is is astonishing.