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It's Hard

The Who - It's Hard Audio CD

A fair review of the The Who "It's Hard" 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.

Band: The Who
Title: It's Hard
Rating:

Release Date: 1997-06-03
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Athena 2: It's Your Turn 3: Cook's County 4: It's Hard 5: Dangerous 6: Eminence Front 7: I've Known No War 8: One Life's Enough 9: One at a Time 10: Why Did I Fall for That 11: Man Is a Man 12: Cry If You Want 13: It's Hard [Live][#][*] 14: Eminence Front [Live][#][*] 15: Dangerous [Live][#][*] 16: Cry If You Want [Live][#][*]

Not One Of Their Better Efforts

"Face Dances" had a couple good songs ("You Better You Bet" and "Another Tricky Day" come to mind), but the rest are hardly worth noting. To me, the two albums following 1978's "Who Are You" are the least memorable in The Who's catalog.

I feel that the same is true for this album. "It's Hard" and "Dangerous" both rock, but the rest are almost completely forgettable. "Eminence Front," with its totally uninspired lyrics and its tendency to drag, is potentially the worst Who song in existence. It sounds like a radical departure from their traditional sound, and it just doesn't work.

I am glad that "It's Hard" was not the last studio Who album. "Endless Wire" takes a landslide victory over this one. .

Love it!
Come on, it's the Who, baby!

Best tracks: "One Life's Enough", "A Man Is A Man", and "Athena". Many didn't like it, but I do.

Worst track: "Dangerous".

ESSENTIAL DOCUMENT OF FRACTURING LEGEND

It's not The Who's best-- but it shouldn't be considered the 'worst' either, because that would suggest it's of negligible value. This album got a hugely favourable review in Rolling Stone magazine when it was released, and it still sounds more muscular, topical and committed than a lot of other stuff released at the time. The fact is that The Who NEVER put out anything less than great-- it's just that some of their work was among the very best in the rock canon.

Coming after the successful Face Dances album, the band had less to prove on It's Hard. They had a new sound, which had been prefaced on Who Are You. Jones was a drummer (seemingly) in tune with Townshend's desire to continue pursuing the possibilities of synthesized music (it certainly sounds that way, anyway, the truth may be otherwise. . . )

Townshend was still writing excellent songs and it's true that some of his better work appeared on his solo albums as opposed to Who LPs. Many of those tracks would've been out of place on a Who album, but some, like 'Rough Boys', would've suited.

So It's Hard, like Face Dances, could've been a better album. It HAS been unfairly maligned because with the brand name, it had so much to live up to. It's still a powerhouse record providing an insight into an act struggling with its legend. In that sense, it should probably be compared to what their contemporaries were doing-- Paul McCartney's Tug Of War, or The Rolling Stones' Undercover.

Like all their other albums, this one is essential for a full understanding of The Who. It's not the place to start, but it's a good place to finish. .

Upon further review, one of their best
For longtime Who fans in particular, this is a piece of work fraught with challenges. If anyone's even bothering to revisit reviews of this album, kudos are in order.

For a band of the Who's stature and longevity, and an artist of Townsend's conviction, one imagine's the act of creation becomes a suffocating burden much of the time. In the early '80s, The Who were competing with the feral Who of '64-'72, or The Who of "Who Are You?" and "Faces Dances," the waning punk and emerging new-wave movements, and The Who of the future. Anyone who remembers watching rock stars of the '60s aging into the '70s and '80s surely still cringes at watching these innovators, pioneers, legends being shuffled toward "retirement" as the world of music critics and fans marked the time before they could relegate these still-vital artists to the dustbin.

Just as fans and critics have struggled with each new Paul McCartney release, or written off just about every Rolling Stone effort since the early '80s, they struggled with confronting the "It's Hard" version of The Who, who at the time of this release embarked on the first of their oft-mocked "farewell" tours. The idea that a band of such power felt its only course of action was to take a grim, resigned victory lap before settling into their pre-ordained empty, inactive Golden Years is proof enough of the unfair and needless pressure that weighed on popular musicians at that time.

For an avid listener and musician in his early 40s, who embraces any manner of musical effort, who has dutifully listened in on many a Pitchfork-touted band and discovered gem after gem, this album still called. It begged a further listen, another reckoning. Sure, I remembered and loved "Athena," "Eminence Front" and "Cry If You Want," the latter being the only time on record that Townsend unleashed his rhythmic fury in an impassioned coda that seemed a fitting "finale" to The Who's recording career.

Finally, after a 25th high school reunion, after alphabetizing my and my wife's now-intermixed vinyl collections in my old bachelor-apartment shelves in our basement, I've revisited "It's Hard" from a far different perspective than I had back in 1982. That year, I was among countless others who held their breath and feared the worst when confronting this album. Would this latest listening, in 2009, be as awkward and forced as meeting someone from one's distant past with whom one struggles to reconnect in a meaningful way -- both parties hindered by expectations of each other that each felt obligated to fulfill?

To my surprise, delight -- and yes, a degree of relief -- "It's Hard" is now unequivocally one of my favorite Who albums. The songs are fresh and playful, incorporating recognizable elements of some of the band's great '70s works, but move them forward with then-contemporary flourishes (like the horn opening to "One At A Time," one of three powerful Entwistle contributions). From front to back, the melodies are strong, soaring, inspired, the rhythms assertive, the playing crisp and confident. There's plenty of, yes, "maturity" (gasp!) in the themes, but who could or would reasonably expect less of a Townsend approaching 40, a Townsend confronting an era of naked excess, increasingly fragmented and challenging musical languages, and a third decade of sustaining a creative entity that was the standard-bearer for a generation that wouldn't get fooled again? "We've found the piper but we've lost the rats," Townsend laments, years after the gates of Tommy's Holiday Camp had been sprung open and its newly enlightened inhabitants sprang forth with freedom into a world of complication that immediately strained every scrap of resolve and emotional resilience.

On "It's Hard," the Who follow Townsend onward and upward, elevating his world-weary yet hopeful exhortations for his audience to meet its toughest tests yet. And they do so with pride, conviction, authority and purpose. Is there a "My Generation" for the '80s on this album? Not by a long shot. But the band yet again summons all the rage, confusion and yearning of its heyday, channeling those energies this time into far more introspective but no less immediate treatises on personal responsibility and self-awareness. They're as hungry for enlightenment and justice as ever. I mourn the missing Who works from '82 to "Endless Wire," but thank Pete and Roger for never giving up, for forging ahead, for reimagining their creative voices while rightfully celebrating their legacy while they're here to enjoy it and curate it as they wish.

Who's Left
It is consistent and it does rock. Unfairly slighted by many, the album is the best album from The Who since Who By Numbers or Quadrophenia. While Daltrey may not be a fan, it is still a great effort and the closest that The Who would get at recapturing their old glory.

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.