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The Who - Who Are You Audio CD

A fair review of the The Who "Who Are You" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Who reviews here, or go back to the The Who tabs.

The Who Band: The Who
Title: Who Are You
Rating:
Release Date: 1996-11-19
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: New Song 2: Had Enough 3: 905 4: Sister Disco 5: Music Must Change 6: Trick of the Light 7: Guitar and Pen 8: Love Is Coming Down 9: Who Are You 10: No Road Romance [#] 11: Empty Glass [#] 12: Guitar and Pen [Olympic '78 Mix] 13: Love Is Coming Down [Work in Progress Mix] 14: Who Are You [Lost Verse Mix]

A sad farewell to Keith Moon
" The last album by The Who with Keith Moon on drums (and in my opinion, the last real Who album), it is ironic that one of its best songs featured no percussion (apart from some walking sounds that he provided) by Keith Moon. One of the most ironic songs in the history of rock has to be The Who's "The Music Must Change. Sadly, the music would change in ways that none of us would wish. Moon's death was one of a seemingly unending number of rock and roll deaths that permeated the sixties and seventies. His was a tragic one, since he OD'd on a drug taken to combat alcoholism. Moon's addictions always took the form of binges. Typically, instead of the three pills that Moon was supposed to take daily, over 30 were found in his system in his autopsy. In the circles in which I ran, the debate was always Moon versus John Bonham, the brilliant creativity and manic energy of the one versus the technical brilliance of the other. I personally sided very slightly with Moon, maybe the first drummer who occasionally made the drums a band's lead instrument.

Unfortunately, WHO ARE YOU? is not a perfect album. There are some weak cuts to go along with some brilliant ones. "A Trick of the Light," for instance, might be my second favorite John Entwistle song (after "My Wife"). And Townshend's best songs, like "Sister Disco," "Love is Coming Down," "New Song," and "The Music Must Change," are all splendid, but even all of those, collectively, are somewhat marred by increasingly cluttered arrangements. The Who at their best was as the most instrumentally gifted rock quartet of all time, with arguably the greatest rhythm section ever (Entwistle would certainly win any poll for the greatest bass player ever, while it would be between Moon and Bonham on drums), while Roger Daltrey is one of the greatest frontmen and lead singers ever and Townshend an excellent guitarist, one of the most important synthesizer pioneers, and one of the great songwriters ever. They were at their best playing hard driving rock and roll, not playing highly orchestrated, overly ornate. Even TOMMY was best performed by just the four of them, not with a backing orchestra. So WHO ARE YOU? often sounds like the augmented version of The Who.

Still, while there are disappointing aspects to the album, there are enough absolutely outstanding songs to indicate that the band was still one of the world's greatest bands. Whether they would have been able to pull out of their creative strain is a question that can't be answered. Certainly they were showing signs of strain. Moon's decade of excess led to his death, while much the same was true of Townshend and Entwistle. And both of the latter were complaining of significant hearing problems. So the band was definitely showing signs of wear. At least the band went out more or less at the top of their game.


My two cents
Perhaps it's the 'tragic' element of the music, with Keith passing so soon after, but I hear a classic album that is a fitting end to the band (I know, "what about what came after", but to me, this is the end). Okay, I'm not a professional writer/reviewer, just a fan of great music. The first time I heard this album, about 25 years ago, I found this to be a boring, excruciating mess. Now, after resolving to give it an open minded listen I am in awe of the band. The songs are crisp and original to me, and perhaps because I remember little of the original mix, I find there is great clarity to the sound of the music. This was a band who were trying to return to great form and almost did so, until Keith gave in. 'Not To Be Taken Away' indeed. . . . Just a suggestion to the naysayers, turn it up to about '7', find a quality pair of headphones, kick back in the recliner, turn the lights out, and just listen.


PLEASE GIVE THIS ALBUM THE "DELUXE EDITION" TREATMENT!
The other two being "Quadrophenia", & "The Who Sell Out". This album is in my Top 3 Who albums. They are not the same 4 guys that pounded out "Tommy" in 1969 but that album has a nice quality to it, and it gets constantly overlooked. "New Song" has got to be one of Roger's best deliveries, along with Pete on "Sister Disco. " "Guitar and Pen" is probably my favorite from this one. And "Love Is Coming Down" is the first real attempt at a ballad by the group and it works well. The title track is great, but overplayed. So please, please MCA please give this album the "Deluxe" treatment that you gave "Who's Next", "Live At Leeds", "Tommy" "Sings My Generation", and most recently "The Who Sell Out. " There is plenty of Townshend Demos from this era that could fill a second disc! PLEASE!!.


Not even worth $1.99!
Aside from the title song, which I like, I rate these songs one or two stars. The Who was the most "hit or miss" group in rock history and this album is mostly misses! I forgot how corny and dated The Who's music is until I bought this turkey of an album.


No - This Album Didn't Get Better With Age
99 download deal, I figured that wasn't too much to lose to see if I had mistakenly rejected this album as drivel 30 years ago. When Amazon recently offered this album as a $1. I don't know - maybe after another 30 years I'll finally hear what those who really like this album are hearing. But for now, this album still seems mostly boring to me. I'm sure the music is technically brilliant, but I can't emotionally connect to most of it.


You can see a complete list of all The Who discography, or go back to the The Who tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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