The Who - Endless Wire CD/DVD

I usually don't review big-time releases, but I thought I'd put a review up for this one. I've read a few reviews for Endless Wire and I've found that most of the time they are not fair and balanced. For instance, the annoying, trend sniffing Pitchfork said all kinds of nice things about this album, but the reviewer had to refer to the score repeatedly (I think the idiot gave it a 4.7 or something) to remind the indie kids that it's not cool to like music made by unhip old guys. He didn't really have anything bad to say about it, though. The other thing is that Pitchfork, along with most other reviewers had to remind us that this doesn't sound like the Who with John Entwistle and Keith Moon in the lineup. No shit? An album made by a band who's members are 60+ years old doesn't rock as hard as their classic albums from 30 years ago? What a fucking surprise.

Yes, this album is more subdued than the Who's classic albums (Who's Next, Quadrophenia, etc.), and though I was suprised myself, it's a solid album. It's definitely better than the last few Pete Townshend albums, and without question it's a hell of a lot better than the Who's last studio album It's Hard. It's split into two parts, a collection of 9 songs, and then a "mini-opera" called Wire and Glass, which takes up the second half of the album. I figured it was gonna suck because a mini opera sounds like a recipe for disaster, especially considering Townshend's overblown concepts of the past 10-15 years. It's good. It's got some catchy rock tunes ("We Got a Hit" and "It's Not Enough") and some nice introspective songwriting. I think it makes sense for old guys to mellow out a little bit, I mean how stupid does it look to see old guys trying to rock out like 20 year olds?