Everyone knows The Who practically invented rock and roll -- proof of this lies in their ranking at number nine on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll." The new album, Endless Wire, does very little to affirm this confirmed status in music history. Endless Wire is The Who's first album of completely new material since 1982's It's Hard, but this album fails to live up to the potential of such a high-quality group.
The Who, after making the rock opera famous with Tommy in the '60s and influencing some of the greatest rock and rollers through the years, have evolved significantly since their conception, and as a result, Pete Townshend (who also produced Endless Wire) and Roger Daltrey are the only remaining members of the original group on the record.
With 21 tracks, the album initially seems endless; however, strangely, the majority of the tracks are under two minutes long. The album was originally to be released in the spring of 2005 under the title WHO2 -- alternate commitments and tour schedules forced the release date to be pushed back to the end of Oct. (Oct. 30 in Europe and Oct. 31 in the United States) 2006.
The opening track on the album, "Fragments," sounds like a botched attempt to resurrect the former glory that was Baba O'Riley. But this time, it's a lame attempt to trick Who listeners of old by using more artificial-sounding synthesized scales. The entire album seems to be a desperate attempt to regain the fame and success The Who once had, and they try to do this by regurgitating their popular rhythmic patterns and melodies in slight, unsuccessful variations.
While "Black Widow's Eyes" is based on the incidence of Stockholm syndrome during the Beslan school hostage crisis, "Two Thousand Years" seems to be a skewed, bizarre Christian rock number (it was inspired by Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ), with lyrics including "Two thousand years / I have waited / to ask if I have loved you / to know if I have served you." In fact, the entire album has a distinct kumbaya feel, with simple guitar lines and lyrics with obvious religious double entendres, which seems more than inappropriate for a rock and roll record.
"We Got a Hit" is by far the best song on the album, as it appropriately combines a fast (relatively, for the CD) beat with entertaining lyrics and a melody conducive to singing along, even though the un-extended version clocks in at a mere minute and eighteen seconds. Luckily, Endless Wire includes an extended version of the song that is more than double the length of the original -- three minutes and four seconds. With this extended version, however, it is unclear why The Who felt the need for the shorter one. Ironically, the "hit" mentioned in the song is a reference to the first track on the album, "Fragments."
Bizarrely, "We Got a Hit" isn't the only track on the album with two different (but very much the same) versions. "Fragments" has a shorter version, cleverly entitled "Fragments of Fragments." The last track on the record is an extended version of "Endless Wire."
In this regard, and also taking into account the randomly-feigned, live "Mirror Door," the album is a mish-mash compilation of tracks that have very little cohesion. The entire record is a poor attempt to put as much music on a CD as possible, even if it compromises the integrity of the album and the group as a whole.
While it is remarkable that The Who continue to put out new music, it is unfortunate that the result is an album of this caliber. More is expected of a group of this magnitude, and they fail to perform on Endless Wire.
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