It’s also a song that taps into the tension that’s always simmering below the surface of classic Who songs, but it feels different now. And the slow-building “Rockin’ in Rage,” finds Daltrey singing about feeling like a mute if he’s not able to speak his truth, even though he’s getting on in age – “I won’t leave the stage,” he threatens, if he can’t rock in rage. “A snotty young kid was a standing success,” Daltrey sings, “Life teaches us well, but I don’t wanna get ‘wise.'”Īt the same time, Townshend has penned a well measured blues song about the horrors of Guantanamo Bay, deceptively titled “Ball and Chain.” “There’s a pretty piece of Cuba, designed to cause men pain,” Daltrey sings amid Townshend’s fluttering guitar lines. “I Don’t Wanna Get Wise” feels like a distant cousin, once or twice removed, from “My Generation.” For all of the “Hope I die before I get old” arrogance of the band’s breakthrough, Townshend is now writing lyrics about learning lessons from growing old - even if he prefers arrogance. Daltrey still has all the tough-guy bravado of his early days, and there is still a dramatic combo of brutality and gentleness throughout Who, but it’s tasteful, and that’s not an easy balance for bands that have been around as long as the Who. It’s not a rock opera (unlike their previous album, 2006’s Endless Wire, which contained a mini opera) and it’s better for it. Despite songs steeped in the band’s once-bragged-about Maximum R&B (witness “Detour,” which could fit on My Generation or Sell Out, and references the band’s “I Can’t Explain”), arena-rock grandeur (“Hero Ground Zero”), and plenty of teenage-wasteland synths (“Street Song,” “I Don’t Wanna Get Wise”), they now have some much-needed perspective. The Who have only sparingly released new music since the death of drummer Keith Moon in 1978 - Who is only their fourth album since then - but it seems like biding their time has worked in their favor. It’s a nod to the past but still wholly new. Pepper’s) and it contains nods to the band’s idols (Chuck Berry and Muhammad Ali) and their past (panels depicting Townshend smashing his guitar, a Union Jack, even Batman and Robin, since they once covered the Adam West Batman theme). Even the album cover is an acknowledgement of the record’s innate Who factor it’s by Peter Blake, who made the Who’s similarly laid-out Face Dances sleeve (as well as Sgt. Luckily, Townshend and Daltrey - quite the prickly pair, as their recent Rolling Stone profile showed - can still summon their inner Who-ness in their mid 70s. The first Who album in 13 years opens with a perfectly cynical Pete Townshend lyric: I don’t care/I know you’re gonna. It’s sort of an Abbot and Costello-esque affirmation of their identity. The Who's 'Who' is classic-rock comfort food. The fact that the song, and much of the record, feels like Classic Rock Comfort Food may be why the band tiled the album simply Who - their first, official self-titled record (as opposed to The Who Sell Out, Who’s Next, Who Are You and on and on and on).

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