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| StarvinMarvin |
I know it's a little late, but here's my review of The Who's Endless Wire:
http://www.iansmusicreviews.com/the_who/the_who.htm#endless_wire
If anyone is interested in my Stones reviews, here's the link:
http://www.iansmusicreviews.com/the_rolling_stones/rolling_stones.htm
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| Joey |
" The best songs however, are two smart, biting selections that were written in response to Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of the Christ. The beautiful acoustic-based 'Man In A Purple Dress' is a brilliant (and truthful) critique of organized religion and the "prats" who make up up the ranks of the clergy. According to Townshend, he wrote the song in order to "challenge to the vanity of the men who need to put on some kind of ridiculous outfit in order to pass sentence on one of their peers." Amen to that. "
' Man In A Purple Dress ' is about his 2003 arrest . |
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| StarvinMarvin |
quote:
Joey wrote:
" The best songs however, are two smart, biting selections that were written in response to Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of the Christ. The beautiful acoustic-based 'Man In A Purple Dress' is a brilliant (and truthful) critique of organized religion and the "prats" who make up up the ranks of the clergy. According to Townshend, he wrote the song in order to "challenge to the vanity of the men who need to put on some kind of ridiculous outfit in order to pass sentence on one of their peers." Amen to that. "
' Man In A Purple Dress ' is about his 2003 arrest .
Nope. It's about the The Church. Check out Pete Townshend's own description of the song at:
http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.0/group/Pete+Townshend/journals.rss |
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| lotsajizz |
a song -- a good song -- can't be put in a box
it's about more than 'the Church'
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| IanBillen |
Endless Wire isn't bad, it isn't spell binding either...it's simply "not bad" so to speak with nothing really moving.
It is kind-of like a "Sunday album". Even though some songs are supposed to be pretty raw for the most part...
it leaves you kind-of "ho-hum" really.
It could of been worse. But it is nothing memorable by any means.
After the first few listens it never aches you to play it again.
What they really needed was an old-school producer with a underlying new-age spin this round. Pete did OK. BUT, in actuality it got a little too Pete Townsend if you know what I mean. Sure he has always been the song writing genius of The Who but in his older years he has kinda went lame, and un-original.
They needed someone to push the envelope to revive The Band while still making it old-school Who. Sure it would of never really been a smash due to The Who's shelf life and marketability these days but.... it could of been alot better.
All-in-all it is just "OK". Nothing terrible and nothing embarassing at all about it.
As raiting it I would have to give it a slight notch above mediocre. I wasn't dissapointed, but I wasn't truly pleased either.
Thats how I feel about it. I bought it the first week it was out...and no, I wasn't expecting another Who's Next so I wasn't building up my expectations too high on this. I don't regret buying it any, but I have not much interest in playing it after three listens.
The trouble is nothing grabs you about it all the way through. There are some attempts to recapture a little of that Who rawness with minimal production, yet it never 100% gets there on those. All though you can't ever say anything is a peice of crap on the album either.
My only true "bitch" about the album is I did think the Bubba Oreiley thing should of been left out. They needed all freshness, not any re-hash now. So why start and end the friggin thing like that. The Bubba Orieily thing was pushed a little much being on the beggining and towards the end.... And I could care less about Rock Opera style stuff right now. I don't need to hear that from them again on a recording in 2006 is what I'm saying.
"Endless Wire" is a cool tune. I like it.
"We got a hit" is a decent Who tune as well. These two are My favs on the album.
If someone asked me about it my response would be this: "eh, it's OK I guess"
Ian
[Edited by IanBillen] |
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| Zack |
Bullshit. It's fucking great. I play it all the time. Get back to your rocket surgery. |
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| IanBillen |
quote:
Zack wrote:
Bullshit. It's fucking great. I play it all the time. Get back to your rocket surgery.
_____________________________________________________________
Zack,
I don't agree. That's all. I ain't knocking the album. I am just not nuts over it either by any means.
You say it's "great". Well then great for you. To be honest I can see someone who is a real old school Who die-hard really digging it I suppose.
But to me anyone calling Endless Wire a truly great album is kinda bold. IMO A Bigger Bang is 100 times better.
I do like Endless Wire alot. That song sticks in my head. We got a Hit is another pretty decent Who Track. A Man in a Purple Dress is OK. Then the rest is just basically average material that at times gives an over all "semi-bland" feel to the album as a whole. Sure it shows some pretty decent song writing but only in an old-school Who sense that has all been totally done before by them 1000 times. Nothing newer and exciting. I didn't want a totally cutting edge album because that would be too over-the-top but I would of appreciatted some new sound angles and some new song writing try's while keeping that same Who sensation is what I was looking for. Instead we got Bubba-Oriely and Quadrophenia revisited.
It doesn't nail anything in me is all and is nothing really that memorable in my ears.
Actually alot of the tracks on the latter half of the album seem like they didn't have enough time to evolve. Seems like their more of longer snippets or hooks of songs that were being worked up but not completed and they instead made what they had into tracks much too soon and added those bits to make a really long album. Which not only made the album kind-of tiring but also made it not real solid. That is where I am at with it. I don't think it the album sucks. It doesn't suck. Not at all. I just think it is nothing memorable and could of been re-worked, worked up alot on tracks on the latter half, and used a good producer to spin an edge with some different approaches and help all this mold into shape.
Ian
[Edited by IanBillen] |
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| lotsajizz |
'Mike Post Theme', 'Man In A Purple Dress', 'Mirror Door', and 'Tea and Theater' are GREAT songs |
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| Zack |
I'll add Black Widow's Eyes and the title track to that list, and throw in We've Got a Hit for good measure.
I'll agree with Ian that the stronger songs in the mini-opera could be expanded. My CD version has long versions of Endless Wire and We've Got a Hit at the end. I substituted those for the short versions, and dropped In the Ether (which does sound like Grover!) Very funny Starvin Marvin.
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| Joey |
quote:
lotsajizz wrote:
'Mike Post Theme', 'Man In A Purple Dress', 'Mirror Door', and 'Tea and Theater' are GREAT songs
YES !!!!!! ' Mike Post Theme ' absolutely ROCKS !!!
" Then, the most anticipated part of the show for me. Tea and Theatre. Oh my gawd.
I have never seen Roger sing it with as much passion as he did tonight. It was so amazing. I have lived for the day when I could see them do that song again live, and they gave me the gift I yearned for tonight. Fucking awesome."
http://www.longliverock.org/
..........
[Edited by kins ]
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[Edited by Joey] |
