Word: townshend
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While other rock groups got lost in a technological doldrums which enervated their music, the Who--masterminded by Peter Townshend--stuck to the basic rock style of the sixties. Today, the financially strapped old-timers and the lobotomized New Wavers backtrack towards their roots, only to find the Who have been there all along, not stagnating but maturing, gaining depth, growing subtle...
...only alternative to despair Townshend gives us is the same offered by all rock musicians with pretensions--the power of their own music. "Guitar and Pen," a bouncy, playful tune, the most good-natured one on the album, predictably tells us just what an artist's only friends...
Subtle hard rock? Most groups that sought it, like Yes and Genesis, vnthesized the rock right out of their music. Townshend's use of the synthesizer has always been comparatively restrained; if he never explored new frontiers, neither did he emasculate his group's music. This approach pays off on Who Are You, in songs like "The Music Must Change," a thriller in which the sound swells like an electronic tide rising and falling behind the rhythym section...
...depth and density of the music insures against mindlessness; we can be certain the Who will never produce mechanical monotonies like the Stones' "Hot Stuff" and "Miss You." Indeed, "Sister Disco," a Townshend song on the album, lets us know exactly where the who stand...
...Though Townshend remains the Who's musical standard-bearer, it's clear that the other members are now full partners. John Entwistle, the bass player, wrote a full third of the album's nine songs, and they're every bit as good as Townshend's. "905," a song about a depersonalized future, has a cold, catchy beat recognizably not Townshend's but definitely the Who's. Daltrey has once again taken control of his voice and uses it with as much energy as in the past, and more dramatic flair, controlling the frenzy and leaving the primal screams...