'Detour' would have been a better title, and it may still be adopted informally by fans, like 'The White Album.' The cover looks a lot like Paul Weller's Stanley Road. Oh, I see it's Peter Blake's work. I thought it might have been.
Huh, that's... a really good reason. I wish he'd started taking that attitude in 1995. I guess there's so much space between PT/Who projects now that expectations are incredibly high.
Richard Evans the webmaster for Official -Who & artist for many WHO covers, told me on the open forum....to paraphrase & almost quote from memory, "They're thinking of just calling it WHO....I didin't really believe that...but reported what he said here..& Sure enough...!! Whaddya know....
I made a mock cover some months back for kicks, excitement for the album...I posted it in a thread there...it had the same orange & black Detour sign..they ended up using..ah well.
Had he done it in 1995 we would have gotten at least one more Entwistle Who album. Pete claimed back then that he couldn't write suitable material for The Who anymore (something he'd claimed since 1982). He suggested the new Who album (which apparently Entwistle and possibly Daltrey were rallying for at the time and not Pete) be composed of Entwistle songs. What's weird is that "Real Good Looking Boy" and "God Speaks of Marty Robbins" were written in the 1990s. He didn't really seem interested in a new Who project until 2001/2002.
I wouldn't have been opposed to them taking a recording like "Ambition" or "Bank Holiday Bash" that presumably feature Entwistle and Moon and adding new Daltrey and Townshend parts to them a la The Endless River or "Free As A Bird"/"Real Love".
It's an airplane crash and then "Glow Girl" is reincarnated...hence the wild psych guitar solo (which is the airplane crash) and then the "it's a girl, Mrs. Walker, it's a girl!" coda.
I posted pretty vehemently over there, before the announcement, that I thought just WHO wasn't good...that it would confuse internet searches & lose business, & if they wanted to use WHO, at least use The or Who Knows or cares, or Who does or anything besides...just WHO.....Bomber a moderator over there got a little miffed, saying its a good title...but as someone pointed out....its the music that counts.. But yeah Detour after the catchy 65ish WHO R&B groove song...& the original band name...nah call it WHO.... The Who-WHO......eegads ! Yikes...we're getting confused just trying to use it in this discussion.. I'm amazed & grateful they did it, surprised after so many aborted attempts or announcements, by god they did it ! Theyre 75 years old ! But they did it, with 54 year old Zak drumming !!!! The apprenticeship is longer than for religious scribes or diamond cutters or anything I can think of..25-30 years with the band before he does the album !!
"Why?" The only reason any band/songwriter/artist needs to put out new music: They wanted to. Pete gave an explanation in this interview a few months back: "I didn't really necessarily feel that we needed to have an album that we played, I don't care whether it's a hit, I just wanted Roger and I to be making new music together..." What's wrong with that, and what better reason does anyone need? "Who Cares", "Who Gives a Rat's Ass"? Well...I do. And at least few others probably do. But again, that's not really the point. They wanted to put new music out so they're doing it. I for one am very eager to hear new songs from my favorite living songwriter, sung by the best interpreter of his songs. Anyone not interested can easily ignore it.
As I understand it, it’s part of a FOUR album project with the next three being titled... What Where When
From The Who website: The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during Spring and Summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend & Dave Sardy with vocal production by Dave Eringa. Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap. The album cover has been created by famed pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go. Sir Peter designed and contributed a painting to the sleeve of The Who’s album Face Dances in 1981.
The Who announce the release of their new album 'WHO' plus UK Tour dates - The Who "Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey and bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap." *whoops....beat by one minute*
You've misunderstood my comments. When I said that I think "Why" would be a good title for the album, I wasn't trying to imply that there is no good reason for them to make a new record. I was literally just saying that I think "Why" would be a good title. It would be funny for a band called "The Who" to release an album called "Why." And it would kind of anticipate the inevitable "Why did you decide to make a new album now" questions they will get. My other suggestions were also not intended to suggest negativity toward the album. I used to have a couple cassette compilations of the band's singles that I entitled Who Knows and Who Cares and I always thought those would be good album titles if the band wanted to invoke their name in a title like they'd done on albums past. I was not intending to suggest I don't care about the new album at all. To summarize my opinions so far, FWIW: I think the new song is okay. It's no masterpiece, but I like it better than anything on Endless Wire. An album of songs at this level would be okay with me, and about what I expect. Seems about middling-It's-Hard level quality. I think the album cover is okay too. It's obviously designed to be derivative and evoke nostalgia. Again, no masterpiece but not terrible either. The album title is incredibly banal. In the grand scheme of things that's not a big deal, but the name "The Who" affords so many opportunities for cleverness that it's surprising they chose the most uncreative and banal title possible.
Well, your post about my post is an even more banal idea than my original post was. Hey, maybe we can continue this indefinitely... Seriously though... do you really think calling the album "Who" is a great, original idea? Or are you just being defensive on behalf of the band? As I said above, the album title isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but since we haven't heard the album yet (except for one song) there's not much else to talk about at this point.
Banal is just banal, there's nothing egregious about it. I'm just in it for the music. Hoping it's a good project.
