Which is why the reactions to Endless Wire - The Who's first album in 24 years, due out Tuesday - will be all over the board. Because the album is all over the board as well, equal parts classic Who and odd Townshend solo work. First off, there'll be the continued controversy over what exactly is The Who without both Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
Fans have suggested calling the band The Two or the album Who's Left? But as they've done on the road after Entwistle died, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey have soldiered on as The Who. And just as on the road, at times Endless Wire is a very close approximation to what we've come to expect.
We've met the new boss, and if not exactly the same, he's very similar to the old boss. At times too close. The first song, Fragments, lives up to its name by starting off with a keyboard piece very similar to that of the Who classic Baba O'Riley, which is then melded to guitar parts lifted from Another Tricky Day.
Some Pinball Wizard-y guitar strumming starts off In the Ether before a very Tom Waits-like vocal kicks in. Then there's the Wire Glass mini-opera, seemingly chronicling The Who's rise and what might happen next. Oblique references to the Cincinnati tragedy ("People died where I performed" in They Made My Dream Come True) and other Who history makes it into the lyrics.
The concept of God is infused throughout the album, be it Townshend irreverently suggesting in Mike Post Theme that if He truly existed, we'd get lucky more often, or very intently asking some questions of Jesus Christ himself in Two Thousand Years. In the gorgeous God Speaks of Marty Robbins, the lyrics muse about music and life. There are moments, however, that capture full Who flight.
It's Not Enough could be an outtake from the Who Are You album, full of recrimination and slashing guitar and powered by a roaring Daltrey vocal. And that's not a surprise. Some think Townshend has lost his songwriting touch over the years.
Not true. Songs on his solo albums, including A Friend Is a Friend from The Iron Man and Now and Then from the much-maligned Psychoderelict album, match up to his finest moments. While there is some filler here, there are enough good moments (and exuberance in mini-opera songs like We Got a Hit) that it's not the disappointment some fans may be braced for.
Endless Wire is a more-than-respectable effort to bring The Who into the new millennium as a creative force rather than a nostalgia act. The band's contemporaries should take note.
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