Endless Wire [Limited]

Performer: The Who
Producer: Bob Pridden; Billy Nicholls
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: The Who: Roger Daltrey (vocals); Pete Townshend (guitar, background vocals); John "Rabbit" Bundrick (keyboards); Pino Palladino (bass guitar); Simon Townshend (drums, background vocals); Zak Starkey (drums). Additional personnel: Jolyon Dixon (acoustic guitar); Brian Wright , Gill Morley (violin); Ellen Blair (viola); Vicky Matthews (cello); Rachel Fuller (keyboards); Stuart Ross (bass instrument); Peter Huntington (drums); Lawrence Ball (electronics); Billy Nicholls (background vocals). Neither time, nor the deaths of founding members, nor claims that they'll never play together again seem to stop the legendary Who. On 2006's ENDLESS WIRE, the band's first official studio full-length since 1982's IT'S HARD, Pete Townshend is still folding progressive structures and lofty themes into bombastic, arena-ready rock, while Roger Daltrey belts it out as though it were still 1976. The Who's 2000s-era touring band, including drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino, and keyboardist John Bundrick, lend enough muscle to the musical attack here to recall the Who's glory days, and a host of studio musicians help flesh out and vary the sound. Surprisingly, all of these elements--Townshend's songwriting, Daltrey's impassioned singing, and the band's tight performances--coalesce to create a remarkably consistent whole. At its best, ENDLESSWIRE resembles the band circa WHO'S NEXT (the synth intro to opener "Fragments," which directly references "Baba O'Reily," is a clear tip-off). In addition to nine new songs, the set also includes the EP WIRE & GLASS (a mini rock-opera from Townsend), which has the band rocking with more vitality than they have in decades. A bonus DVD shows the Who performing live in Lyon, France in 2006, and churning out immortal classics like "I Can't Explain" and "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Rolling Stone (pp.121-122) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Daltry and Townshend have made a record as brazen in its way and right for its day as THE WHO SELL OUT and TOMMY were in theirs." Spin (p.103) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey explore a rustic folk-rock vibe..." Q (pp.126-127) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's very much Townshend's album....Reassuringly, Townshend still refuses to write about the obvious or mundane." Mojo (Publisher) (p.98) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's fantastic, arguably the best Who record since 1973's QUADROPHENIA....[With] a couple of stunning, rustic folk songs and enough mind-boggling Townshend cosmology...to elevate this into a challenging piece of conceptual art."

From the youthful arrogance of their early 1960s recordings to their ambitious rock operas and the more introspective FM rock staples of their mid-1970s albums, the Who raged like a rock & roll inferno. Pete Townshend's guitar fireworks and Keith Moon's larger-than-life drumming combined with the busy basslines of John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey's vocal roar to create one of rock's mightiest noises. The band reconvened numerous times following the hard-living Moon's death in 1978, and even continued to play for several years following the death of Entwistle in 2002.

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