Left of the Dial	The Who: Endless Wire by Donny Kutzbach

The Who: Endless Wire (Universal)

A Who record in 2006 is almost critic-proof, inasmuch as there’s a global audience waiting for one the greatest rock-and-roll bands ever to release a full set of new material some quarter of a century after their last. While the band carried on after the 1978 death of Keith Moon, this marks the first time the Who have reconvened since the death of rugged bass maestro John Entwistle. Some have undoubtedly found foible in the fact that this is merely half of the legendary outfit, but Endless Wire finds the heart still beating in the mighty ’Oo. For as much as the rhythm section was a key factor in the Who’s power on records like Who’s Next and Quadrophenia, the core was always Pete Townshend’s songs and guitar heroics with Roger Daltrey’s monumental frontman vocal show at the center turning it toward rock spectacle. Longstanding drum stool-filler Zak Starkey, who has ably provided all the bombast of prime Moon, is absent here, barring his appearance on “Black Widow’s Eyes,” due to touring commitments with Oasis, leaving drums up to sessioner Peter Huntington and Townshend himself. Pino Palladino, who was Entwistle’s immediate replacement at bass, anchors the proceedings with his even-keeled playing. And what of Townshend and Daltrey? Amazingly ageless in so many respects. Townshend’s power chords still chime and sustain with the resonant passion that made him a six-string icon. Furthermore, Endless Wire encapsulates his greatest body of songs in decades. Daltrey’s stadium steamrolling vocals couldn’t be any stronger. While many of the aging frontmen of his generation (Jagger, Plant and so on) have to really push to summon just a pale shade of their past powers, Daltrey effortlessly peels the paint off the walls. Endless Wire is a record in two parts, with the first nine songs concisely sticking together as a whole. The opening synth salvo of “Fragments” echoes the one from “Baba O’Reilly” but it feels not so much a retread as a reminder—and then it kicks into overdrive. “Mike Post Theme” is a bursting, vitriolic rock number in the band’s great anthemic mold. Townshend’s gift for acoustic balladry is back on display with “God Speaks of Marty Robbins,” highlighted by his soft tenor and immaculate acoustic guitar playing. Then tracks 10 through 19 (plus two bonus extended versions) comprise a mini-opera, “Wire & Glass,” playing with themes Townshend has been exploring since his abortive Lifehouse project. Short songs, like the explosive rock of “Pick up the Peace” and the rousingly melodic “Unholy Trinity,” interlock. “Mirror Door” plays like a history lesson of music over the last few hundred years with namechecks ranging from Bach to Bonzo’s Dog Doo-Dah Band. It’s not exactly a landmark record (outside of the fact that it took so long to arrive) and it doesn’t break new ground, but Endless Wire sounds through and through like prime mid-1970s Who. While they aren’t leading the new revolution, the Who still ought to take a bow for this one. As a final note: The Who have been called rock dinosaurs at least since their first cash-in “reunion tour” almost two decades back. Interestingly enough, the music industry itself is quickly become something of a dinosaur as I write this. As the format of CD is heading for extinction, labels have found a way to put the jumper cables to sales with special edition discs. Worth seeking out is the version of Endless Wire bolstered by two additional discs of a 2006 performance, Live at Lyon, a play on the famed Live at Leeds, with one a DVD and the other a live CD EP.