The Who

The Endless Wire - 2006

It's become a critical reflex to auto-pan records of new material released by classic rock legends, a seemingly coordinated effort by the music-scribe

community to create a unified message of "shut up and play the old stuff!" It's usually a justifiable knee-jerk: So many acts reunite with dollar signs in their

eyes and a diluted pool of talent that the few artists who do make relevant albums in old age-- your Neil Youngs, your Tom Waitseses-- are miraculous by

comparison. Furthermore, there's something depressing about watching formerly popular bands persevere long past their prime, usually lacking some

critical piece of their identity, be it simply youth, hunger, or the drive and courage to create something different.

The Who are more prone to these allegations than most, having famously decried the horrors of being old from their very beginning. Now 20 years

past the release of a record called Who's Last, and four years after the 2002 death of bassist John Entwistle, the band's continued existence seems

feeble on paper. Retaining the group's two most visible personalities, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, is enough for the Who to remain a viable

touring act for as long as they please, but anything new to come out of the group can't help but be predictable and hollow by this point, right?

Well, would it surprise you if that wasn't entirely the case with Endless Wire? Obviously the rating up there isn't gaudy, but it certainly could be far

worse for a band that arguably hasn't produced worthwhile new material since the Carter administration. The first half of the record is everything one fears

from a museum-piece band an entire generation past its prime: rehashes of old hits, preachy, creaky acoustic numbers, the noticeable absence of

deceased contributors. The second half, on the other hand, throws a bit of a curveball for a band expected to be robotically strip-mining the past, debuting

a portion of a new Pete Townshend rock opera that provides fleeting glimpses of the Who sounding remarkably true to their younger selves.

About that first half: It says it all that the lead track and single (if there really is a radio station out there that would play a new Who song), "Fragments",

is full of the same synthesizer arpeggios that grace the recently fashionable "Baba O'Riley". That the song was produced by the "Method" from the aborted

Lifehouse project (scraps of which became Who's Next) is the kind of trivia that will make the song excusable only to Who fanatics, while casual fans hear

a knockoff with about 1% of the original's massive chorus. Elsewhere, the first half veers between acoustic naps inspired by The Passion of the Christ

(seriously) and forced upbeat numbers (the commercial commentary "Mike Post Theme", and the Fleetwood-Mac glossy "It's Not Enough") that sorely

miss the rumble bass of "The Ox", not to mention Keith Moon's spectacular clatter.

Strangely, all the missing elements and nostalgia-grabs that make the first half of Endless Wire such a sad listen organize themselves into a form that

is faintly exciting for the second part, which is comprised of songs from a rock-opera-in-progress called Wire & Glass. This shocking turn of events sorta

makes sense; after all, it's vain for Townshend & Daltrey at 60 to strive for their raucous early days, but the song-cycle heritage of Tommy and

Quadrophenia remains within their now limited range.

Focusing on a narrative, confusing as it might be, appears to give the band more purpose and to transmute its new weaknesses into old strengths.

Daltrey's bellow, which sounds silly over the front half's thinner sound, works better in the service of dramatic material like "Sound Round" or "Mirror Door"

(which, like the album cover, hearkens back to the imagery of Tommy more than a little bit). In service to his story, Townshend gets more interesting with

his arrangements, like the interwoven piano and guitar of "Unholy Trinity" or the much weirder reprise "Fragments of Fragments", segueing together

mini-songs like a calmer, wiser "A Quick One".

Is all that enough to save Endless Wire? Again, based on the score, obviously not. But it is a rare, unexpected move from a Hall of Fame band,

creditable for being more than the usual Give The People What They Want pension scheme. In most instances, the best case scenario for a reunion

album is to justify its existence, to appear as more than just a pointless exercise in career perpetuation. For the second half of Endless Wire, the Who at

least meet those qualifications, producing work that adds, if incrementally, to their career body of work rather than just damaging the reputation of their

long-ago days.

Track Listing:

Fragments

Man in a Purple Dress

Mike Post Theme

In the Ether

Black Widow's Eyes

Two Thousand Years

God Speaks of Marty Robbins

It's Not Enough

You Stand by Me

Sound Round

Pick Up the Peace

Unholy Trinity

Trilby's Piano

Endless Wire

Fragments of Fragments

We Got a Hit

They Made My Dream Come True

Mirror Door

Tea & Theatre