New Who. You?

"I remember The Who! The Who were wicked awesome!" - Robin Williams (in old man voice from late 70's standup special on HBO).After listening once or twice to the new album from The Who, I am rather satisfied. I was struck right away by the sheer clarity of the recording (not to mention the sequenced nods to Baba O'Riley). 24 years have gone by since the last real album release. Combine that with my age of 38. Therefore all previous very first listens to Who tunes and albums came via the velvety warm but sometimes crackling, hissing or income determined level of analog reproduction... vinyl LPs, bitch! Stereophonic! High Fidelity! Hi-Fi! 33 1/3 RPM!! (There was this one reclusive dude in town in the 70's who had a Quadrophonic reel-to-reel tape release of one or more of the albums... but I think you had to help him find his lost puppy, or eat some special candy and take a ride in his unmarked van to an undisclosed location to hear it from between the floorboards above though.)So this is nice to experience so cleanly. Hanging in my ears until I die though are the unique cracks and pops of a then kid-worn record. There they are with their own polyrhythms right between Pete's gutpunch windmill strums at the end of "Won't Get Fooled Again" Mine are different than yours. They're like fingerprints of abuse, the platters and needles they endured and of course unavoidable aging of those mechanical recordings. I still hear them when I put a CD on or when CSI comes on the tube.Halfway through this thoughtful, pleasant not-so-frantic collection of rock ditties I'm just enjoying the Who-ness of it. There's a couple people missing though. The harmonies aren't as spicy or sweet as in days gone by. But what are you going to do about that? Time and people pass. Voices change. This Who wisely isn't trying to imitate a Who with John or Keith. It'd surely be obvious and nauseating if they did. This album is not an embarassing cash-in by a couple of has beens.Yup. It is obviously a Daltrey-Townshend project. There don't seem to be any obvious outside influences (i.e. there's no Eno, Froom, Rundgren colorings to be found.) It might have arguably been better to release it under those venerable solo surnames but, shit, if you can put out an album that says "The Who" on top, wouldn't you too?There are no perfect, destined for the Rock 'n Roll HOF air guitar-inducing stadium stompers to knock any adrenaline triggering Who classics off their pedestals but it's 2006 and that's okay. It might be too mellow for some in spots. There might be a slow tune you'll skip by later. Pete and Roger are much older and so am I. If I want old Who, I'll put on old Who. This is a pretty damn good album. It's heartfelt, wise, reflective, meditative and more... but that doesn't mean it doesn't rock. It's muscular at points and very worthy of turning that volume knob up a bit higher than you did earlier today for your indie band of the week's latest CD.Now, this may be blasphemy to some, but I find listening to this album reminiscent of the joy of first putting on Elton John's recent followup to "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy," called "The Cowboy and The Kid," just a month or so ago. That album and this one stand up quite well compared to the more well known entries of the artists' extensive catalogues. Both Elton John and The Who make obvious melodic and sonic nods to their masterworks of thirty-plus years earlier. No need to reinvent the wheel. (Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell III" however apparently has more bombast than soul without Jim Steinman on board and doesn't reach the pop glory of the first album or even the sequel of a decade ago.)The past is the past. Don't expect "Who's Next II" or "Quadrophenia 2006." If you're very wary and you're sure you'll be disappointed, please just sit back, relax and just enjoy the experience of something new from the closest thing to The Who that you'll ever hear: The Who themselves.It sounds like The Who. It is The Who now. There is no other Who to be found.If you'll pardon me, I must go and turn it up for this track... oh, and that one... and this other one...