Product Description

A collection of both acoustic and rock numbers, with a 10 song mini-opera as the second half, 'Endless Wire' was a pretty ambitious move for The Who, considering that it's been 24years since their last studio album. Although it won't be overshadowing the triumphs of previous gems like 'Quadrophenia', it still has the essence of The Who, showing that they can still be creative whilst retaining aspects of their original style.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Fragments
2. Man In A Purple Dress
3. Mike Post Theme
4. In The Ether
5. Black Widow's Eyes
6. Two Thousand Years
7. God Speaks Of Marty Robbins
8. It's Not Enough
9. You Stand By Me
10. Sound Round
11. Pick Up The Peace
12. Unholy Trinity
13. Trilby's Piano
14. Endless Wire
15. Fragments Of Fragments
16. We Got A Hit
17. They Make My Dream Come True
18. Mirror Door
19. Tea And Theatre
20. We Got A Hit
21. Endless Wire

Disc 2:

1. Seeker
2. Who Are You
3. Mike Post Theme
4. Relay
5. Greyhound Girl
6. Naked Eye
7. Won't Get Fooled Again

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17653 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-30
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
Nearly a quarter-century (and bassist John Entwistle) passed between what had been considered the Who's career-capping album, It's Hard and this 21-song epic, which at its best has the band of two pining for the days of Who's Next. Built from the triumph of the mini-opera Wire & Glass EP (included here in its entirety), Endless Wire mixes metaphors of music, war, and religion, while showcasing Roger Daltrey's ageless vocal cords and Pete Townshend at his windmilling best. Launching with a "Baba O'Riley"-like synth break in "Fragments," Daltrey asks "Are we breathing out or breathing in?" and Townshend answers with a thrashing, crashing Gibson. When the volume is turned up, there are echoes of three decades ago. "It's Not Enough" and "Mike Post Theme" conjure images of Entwistle and Keith Moon--the latter song, with its quiet verse and thunderous chorus, recalls "Going Mobile" and longs for Moon to whack it into shape. But the linchpin remains Townshend's songwriting, whether he's questioning faith ("Man in a Purple Dress"), showing gratitude for support ("You Stand By Me"), or dreaming of entertaining immortals into eternity ("Out on an Endless Wire"). By the time it wraps up, Endless Wire tells two things. No, it does not quite rank with the band's best work. But yes, as long as Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey walk the earth in tandem, the Who live on. --Scott Holter

Customer Reviews

After 24 years of wait Pete produces some demos with Roger Daltrey and others on it....
Pete Townshend waited 24 years, the dead of John Entwistle and the decline of Roger Daltrey s' voice to "produce" a new collection of songs. Half the songs are sung by him and the other half has Roger s' voice on them. Roger s' voice sounds fresh ans strong (like the old times), in some of them (mainly on Fragments, 2000 Years, Unholy Trinity and Mirror Door), while on others sounds "seasoned" (but not bad nor wasted as other people wrote). He did a great job under the circunstances, and we can not take away credit to the ones who "produced" him.

Some very good songs on this cd and in my opinion and for me they are: "In the Ether", "We got a hit" (longer version), "Mirror Door" and "It s' not enough" (you can feel total passion on Roger Daltrey s' performance on this particular song). A couple of "songs" are clearly "PT s' demos" and sound underproduced ("God speak to Marty Robbins", "You Stand by Me" and particularly "Fragments of Fragments" and "Trilby s' Piano"). The beginning on "Black Widow's Eyes" sound a lot like "Goin Mobile", a fan favorite from "Who s'Next" that has never played live by the Who. "Fragments" sounds similar (in the beggining) to "Baba O Riley" but does not get near to the energy and passion of that great classic. "Mike Post Theme" comes from "The Punk Meets the Godfather" and also the bridge on "The Acid Queen". "A Man In A Purple Dress" and "Tea & Theatre" are similar because they only feature acustic guitar and Pete and Roger vocals; the last one is a beautiful song that evoques tha band s'past.

We (the fans) do compare The Who s'previous works but doing so ones has to admit that maybe it is unfair, takin in consideration that John Entwistle and Keith Moon are dead, and Kenney Jones is no longer with the band. Also, only on a couple of songs, all the actual live unit is (and they are the ones that have the best sound).

This is an album that sounds as lot to "Scoop", 3 cds produced by Pete Townshend with mainly "demos". "Endless Wire" is a "demos" cd with Roger Daltrey and co. on some songs; the rest are pure PT solo produced and performed songs. I imagine this cd rightfully produced by Glyn Jones or even Steven Wilson from "Porcupine Tree", with a complete and unified sound. Do not misunderstand me, I like "Endless Wire" a lot, and i am happy that finally after A 24 years wait Peter Townshend decided to do it. The very sad fact is that he and Roger Daltrey, did not gave John Entwistle the chance to record any of his songs "post mortem". Just one John Entwistle song here, could have done all the difference. He and his songs are sorely missed here. I only hope someone will do justice to him, gathering all the hundreds of songs he recorded for 24 years, waitin for his chance to record a Who album, mostly with his songs....

If you aks me if this cd is superior to "Face Dances" or "Its Hard"? My answer is, that i do really like both of them. Those cds have very very good songs on them: "I ve' known No War" from "It s Hard" is a great Who song never played on stage by the band and also "You" from "Face Dances", among others. Still I like to revisit both of them, and surely i will do the same with "Endless Wire". But also, no, ENDLESS WIRE does not get near "Sells Out", "Tommy", "Who s' Next" or "Quadrophenia", the best cds ever by the Who, or even "Whistle Rymes", "Empty Glass" or "Rock s' in the Head". John Entwistle, Pete Townshend or Roger Daltreys best solo cds ever. I want to close my Review saying that lets hope that Pete Townshend does not wait another 24 years to record a proper follow up to Endless Wire.

We got a HIT!!!
The group's current line up, mainly Roger Daltrey lead vocals, Pete Townshend guitars, vocals, Zac Starkey Drums, Pino Palladino Bass, with John "Rabbit" Bundrick on Hammond Organ and Simon Townshend backing vocals, have been working on the album for some time. The album includes the typical dramatic Who signatures we all know and love interspersed with some very poignant acoustic numbers from Pete. One or two old Who fans of many years standing i played this album to recently were very enthusiastic about most of the songs, myself included, the band still have a lot to say, dealing with religious, social and political themes just as biting as their writing back in their early days!

The first song "Fragments" starts with what sounds like a speeded-up "Baba O'Riley" intro, a smile of recognition here as the song settles into traditional Who style signatures on vocals and guitar power chords from Pete. The next song "Man in a Purple Dress" is just Pete on acoustic guitar and Roger on vocals, written by Pete after seeing Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ". "Mike Post Theme" is a much heavier affair, awash with those dramatic Who crescendos, power chords and Pete's familiar backing vocals. This trackmore than any other reminded me of "Who's Next". "In the Ether" is a much darker song with guitar, piano and Roger's voice is obviously much deeper these days and sometimes growling. "Black Widow's Eyes" another traditional sounding Who song, some amazing Moon-style drum and cymbal crashes from Zac, Keith gave Zac drum lessons many years ago.
"2000 Years" features Pete on mandolin with orchestral backing, and Roger repeating "2000 long long years..i've waited". Another demo-sounding track from Pete "God Speaks of Marty Robbins" is Pete singing with his acoustic guitar. "It's Not Enough"!! I would have loved to have written this song myself - "i gave you cash, i gave you love, all that i heard was it's not enough"...."i work so hard. it gets so tough, whatever i give, it's not enough.." a good rocker too! The next song is completely opposite, "You Stand by Me" about having unquestioning support through difficult times, another acoustic number from Pete.

The much publicised ten song mini-opera "Wire and Glass" kicks off with "Sound Round" and "Pick up the Peace", and immediately reminded me of "Tommy" - great! This is very much a re-invigorated Who we all know and love, one lyric-driven song leading into another interspersed with various instruments (mandolin, banjo) and vocal styles and harmony effects, though the most striking song here is "We Got a Hit" , though extremely catchy is very short, though an extended version is included on the CD. "Fragments of Fragments" describes the mini-opera fairly accurately, as overall this is how it comes over, a collection of fragments but which doesn't detract from some excellent musical ideas here, which is a mini opera after all so no long over-extended dramatic solos here.

Overall an exciting return to form for the Who and well worth the wait, who knows if they'll come up some more music in the future - but not 24 years please guys!!!

It's all Petes
I would have bought with its proper title of "Scoop 4", it's good but it's only partial Who. There's only 1 track I'm not keen on but its slowly growing on me, as a Pete Townshend solo it probably would not have sold as many.