6 Dec 2019
WHO IS FINALLY HERE!
THE CRITICS AGREE
IT’S THEIR BEST SINCE THE 70s
“THEIR BEST SINCE QUADROPHENIA” ~ 9/10 UNCUT
“THE WHO WILL NOT GO QUIETLY” ~ 4/5 MOJO
“THEIR BEST SINCE WHO BY NUMBERS IN 1975” ~ THE TIMES
“WHO STANDS UP ALONGSIDE THEIR CLASSICS” ~ NME
“ALL THESE YEARS ON THE WHO ARE NOT A SAFE PROPOSITION” ~ LONG LIVE VINYL
“ANGRY MEDITATIONS ON AGEING” ~ Q
“POTENT YET POIGNANT” ~ CLASSIC ROCK
“A RETURN TO FORM, REMINDING US WHY THEY DESERVE THEIR PLACE IN ROCK N ROLL HISTORY” – CLASH
“THIS MIGHT BE THEIR LAST ALBUM, IF IT IS THEY’RE GOING OUT THE WAY THEY CAME: AS CUSSED, AND AWKWARD AND TROUBLE AS EVER” ~ THE GUARDIAN
“THE WHO’S DEFIANT POSTSCRIPT” ~ THE NEW YORK TIMES
“A RESOUNDING MONUMENTAL, MODERN ALBUM FOR ALL WHO FANS” ~ THE EXPRESS
Today The Who release their first new album in 13 years, the defiant and fiery WHO. The album features the three tracks already released – ‘BALL & CHAIN’, ‘ALL THIS MUSIC MUST FADE’ and ‘I DON’T WANNA GET WISE’ along with eight more brand new songs (11 on the Deluxe CD and nine on the Deluxe vinyl).
The bonus tracks for the Deluxe versions of the album include two previously thought ‘lost’ tracks from 1966, ‘GOT NOTHING TO PROVE’ and ’SAND’. The former on the deluxe CD and the latter on the triple red, white and blue coloured vinyl edition. The deluxe CD of WHO also features ’THIS GUN WILL MISFIRE’ and ‘DANNY & HIS PONIES’, two tracks recorded and sung by Pete Townshend during the sessions for the album.
The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during spring and summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend & D. Sardy (who has worked with Noel Gallagher, Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz) with vocal production by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson).
Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey and bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, drummers Carla Azar and Joey Waronker, bass player Gus Seyffert and legendary guitarist Gordon Giltrap.
The album cover has been created by famed pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1965 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go! Sir Peter also designed the album cover and contributed a painting for The Who’s 1981 album Face Dances.
The songs on WHO cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and ‘an old rock star that has lost his marbles’. Roger Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest “I think we’ve made our best album since Quadrophenia in 1973, Pete hasn’t lost it, he’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge”.
Following an amazing 2019 spring and autumn North American tour, plus their triumphant return to Wembley Stadium this past summer, the band will be embarking on a UK and Ireland tour featuring a full orchestra in spring 2020 followed by several more US gigs including, after 40 years, a return to Cincinnati, and a six-night residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV. See The Who’s full list of tour dates here.
WHO TRACKLISTING
All This Music Must Fade
Ball And Chain
I Don’t Wanna Get Wise
Detour
Beads On One String*
Hero Ground Zero
Street Song
I’ll Be Back
Break The News**
Rockin’ In Rage
She Rocked My World
All songs written by Pete Townshend except
*Pete Townshend/Josh Hunsacker **Simon Townshend
Produced by Pete Townshend & D. Sardy
Roger Daltrey Vocal production Dave Eringa
Mixed by D. Sardy
CD Deluxe Edition also includes
This Gun Will Misfire
Got Nothing To Prove
Danny & My Ponies
LP Deluxe Red, White & Blue coloured vinyl edition includes
Sand
All deluxe edition tracks previously unreleased.
I listened to the entire album this morning and I was very moved by it. A lot of reviews have been very good but they’ve all said there’s no narrative, no concept etc. And, of course, it doesn’t necessarily need one but I think there is one. It just needs to be listened to very carefully – like an album is meant to be listened to.
Years ago I took the time to watch this movie and in it there was this guy and you could sense he was committed to his work, a higher purpose than just the surface, burdened to a point.
With full emotion he said : “There are kids out in that audience and if we don’t go on it’s over for them”. At the time I heard it I didn’t too much of it.
A lifetime since, it transcends to so much more.
Not to be measured by any standard … this album … this specific work … is proof that all of you exemplify that timeless ideal. Thank you Pete, Roger, Zak, Pino (and I’ll go so far as to say Simon as well): You people are THE WHO (and thank you supporting cast) !
I hope you each take my comment to heart. Thank you “for going out there”. Thank you every time. If you are EVER in my neighborhood my door is always right here and open for all of you.
Sincerely –
Mike Greco
Grazie di esistere!!!!!!…se questo sarà il vostro ultimo album, a noi fan non potevate fare un regalo migliore…stupendo…arrangiamenti spettacolari,non c’è un pezzo brutto…grande Pete…maestoso Roger…un bel regalo di Natale…Vi amo!Siete i miei fratelli di vita. Long live Rock!!!!
Got the deluxe cd today day 1
WOW WHO
A typical WHO recording that provides the tracks to grow on us over and over-Genius contributions by Roger and Pete (and others). Thanks for this instant classic guys
Brilliant blend of “progressive rock” that will stand up against their best
Who 2019-
2020 AND Beyond
Long live Rock! Not dead Alive !!!
Thanks you so much Pete and Roger for everything you gave me since almost 45 years. I was a fifteen kid the first time I listened to your songs ans you have accompanied my life All these years. So what a wonderful Xmas gift you offer me with this wonderful record. You hadn’t written such song for years Pete. I thank you. And Roger I discover more and more how great singer you were . The greatest rock singer in the World. You’ll be always the greatest of the History without forget Keith and John. See you at Leeds next March . I love you.
Listened to the album several times. I agree it is a great album. Rogers voice is like vintage chrome. Really well worth waiting for. I can’t help thinking what the album would have sounded like had John and Keith still been around. Such a solid piece of work. A masterpiece and I am guessing the final album. See you at Wembley next year lads.
This is a good album but puzzling. It certainly is not better than “Face Dances” or “It’s Hard.” Sorry. Not ONE fucking guitar solo? Pete “can make an acoustic fly.” Why didn’t he? This Sardy character mixed the bass mostly too high and the drum sound is not great. Where’s Glyn when you need him? Cut out the vocoder and autotuner too – it’s for kids. Also – try just one drummer (Zak) and bass player on the album. Also, why no lyrics – and why does the enhanced CD have a simpler cover (nine squares)?
I love the album they sound great
Il disco è bellissimo ma almeno i testi ce li potevano mettere non siamo tutti di madre lingua inglese
L album è bello ma i testi potevano metterceli non siamo tutti di madre lingua inglese the album is beautiful but the lyrics could put them in, we are not all English speakers
I think it’s a late career classic. Sounds like 40 years ago with a
fresh modern twist. Well done, boys, you’re back !
Superb, artful creative and genre-spanning. More than rock, more than jazz more than poetry and more than proverbial. Ground has been shattered and shuddered.
PWER
Four days on and I’ve listened to the album over a dozen times. The ‘Beads On One String’ track is just beautiful.
I’m desperate to listen to the new album but unfortunately mine hasn’t arrived that I ordered and paid for back in early October.But I will say the tracks I’ve heard on you tube are brilliant.Thanks Pete and Roger in anticipation of receiving it.
As others have said, after a couple listens you realize just what a great album this is. Of course, that’s pretty much the same experience with all their albums. It also shows how the crappy sound of Youtube and Spotify, etc, don’t do an album justice. I did listen to the tracks released early but they didn’t grab me like they do now – when the album is listened to in a continuous flow in good sound quality.
Biggest surprise? Really like “Break the news” and “Detour”. And “Nothing to Prove” is groovilicious!.
Beat my expectations guys. Thank you! What an unexpected treat to be listening to a “good”, “new” Who album in 2019.
Once there was a note pure and easy.
It’s still there.
Thank you for the music!
This new album does not do it for me. Although, I am always happy for any WHO activity; to compare or say it is half as good from anything from the 70’s would be a gross exaggeration. I think all you have to do is play the under-rated Who Are You album in it’s entirety and, you wonder how, one can say it’s the best album since The Who By Numbers. There is not a song even as good as ‘Another Tricky Day’! I have been a die-hard Who fan for 43 years and I give them three stars for effort. Any Who is better than no Who. I think Endless Wire was better than this latest creation. Please keep rockin’, Pete and Roger
‘She Rocked My World’ is the sexiest song I have ever heard!!
Whole album great! Genius.
Roger, you really are still a master of interpreting how the vocals bring out the feel/drama of Pete’s music.
Oh what joy! The joy of Scrooge or George Bailey when their hearts opened up. I first encountered The Who back in 75 as a 6-year-old clumsily placing my brothers vinyl albums on the turntable, scratching them to destruction. I loved Endless Wire, and thought ‘Tea and Theatre’ was doubtless their touching farewell to the fans. Upon listening to WHO, I was genuinely staggered, and had to play it again straight away to make sure my senses were not deceiving me. A straight-up classic Who album. Fizzing, crackling, powerful, moving, irreverent and intensely alive. Beautifully-crafted songs which embed themselves in your soul like truly great songs should. God bless The Who and all who sail in her!