Retro Reviews: The Who: It's Hard

  I decided to launch a new series to imagine myself as a critic at the end of the 70s and start of the 80s, and to rectify certain reviews from Rolling Stone magazine and Creem. This not meant to be contrarian, but to offer a more balanced perspective. All the albums reviewed are indeed classic albums. 

The Who – It’s Hard (1982)

***

Producer: Glyn Johns

Musicians: Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, Kenney Jones, Andy Fairweather Low, Tim Gorman

Songs: Athena, It’s Your Turn, Cooks County, It’s Hard, Dangerous, Eminence Front, I’ve Known No War, One Life’s Enough, One At A Time, Why Did I Fall For That, A Man Is A Man, Cry If You Want

Reviewed by Matthew Anthony Allair

    The new Who album is out, and the follow up to their more pop leaning Face Dances from well over a year before, this is the second time that drummer Kenny Jones has made an appearance, which has it’s pros and cons, but we will address that in a moment. The album also comes off the heels of Pete’s second solo album All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes over the summer of this year. It’s a polarizing record indeed, I can’t agree with the extremes on the album by my critical peers, while I can’t agree with the praise from Rolling Stone, I also can’t agree with the lambasting by others, the album sits somewhere in the middle. It cannot match the band in their 70s prime, but then again, I don’t think The Who wants to recycle their past glories. In fact, the album seems like a possible final statement, not only of the band, but a statement about the generation that Townshend has come to represent, and it’s possible that assessment might not be very flattering, but we will get to that in a moment.

    One point of note is that Entwistle has written three songs on the album, much of which is typical of John’s sardonic humor and tone. Unlike Producer Bill Szymczkk’s pop leaning, Glyn Johns has been brought back, but the objective remains the same. The Who has become a pop band with a rock edge. Admittedly Face Dances was full of mixed results and uneven, the band faced the tragic death of Keith Moon and, once they decided to continue, had to answer if they could continue, now Kenney Jones might have seemed like an odd choice to replace Moon, and the recent appearance of a player like Simon Phillips on Townshend’s solo album may have heightened that question as Phillips may have been a better fit. Yet Jones does a commendable job for what is required. My biggest complaint about Glyn John’s has little to do with the quality of the drums, bass, or layers of keyboard sounds, but how thin the electric guitars sound on various tracks, perhaps this was a band decision, or to emulate Chris Thomas’s sound on Pete’s solo albums. That issue isn’t true with every track, but many of them. 

    The opener “Athena” is a statement of intent that this is a pop band now. It’s a brisk, fun little number and one of the singles. John’s “It’s Your Turn”, sung by Roger, sounds like a passing of the torch to the next generation of rock artists, It has a little of the scorn of the prior “Success Story”. The issue with “Cooks County” is the fact that it sounds too self-consciously imitative of new wave, but unlike the keyboard work from Who Are You which was innovative at the time, this doesn’t work here, it also feels frivolous. The title track has a dramatic guitar opener and an improvement, it’s keyboard’s give it a heroic fanfare, and Daltrey delivers a good vocal, but it really only becomes effective in the second half. John’s “Dangerous”, sung by Roger, seems to hint a nod towards “Had Enough”, but it meditates on the issue of self-destruction. The single “Eminence Front”, sung by Pete, is by no doubt the best number on the album. It's a critique about the facades people use. While the drums hold a basic beat, it’s the keyboards and bass that hint at funk, a genre I doubt Keith would have been comfortable with. 

    The side two opener, “I’ve Known No War” may be an anti-nuclear proliferation screed but it also cast doubts on Pete’s generation that took their anti-war stance to such a degree that may have intermittently dismissed the necessity of the fight in World War Two, there’s also so lush orchestral work deep in the middle of the track. Roger’s read on “One Life’s Enough” is self-reflective, the piece is very similar to “Prelude” from Townshend’s Chinese Eyes album.  John’s last track “One At A Time” is a scathing rocker with John’s unusual horn embellishments, it could be a companion to “My Wife” from another vantage point. “Why Did I Fall For That” has a guitar opening that may remind some of a Ennio Morricone western theme, but the bulk of this pop number is deceptive, lyrically it is scathing and Daltrey’s vocal delivery has a contempt that is lost at first listen. 

    The one true ballad is “A Man Is A Man”, a plea for men to curb their worst impulses, and Daltrey’s read has a certain pathos, when you consider that Roger - by the mid 60s - did have a bit of macho preening, there is growth, the track also have bright guitar harmonics that feels atypical from the rest of the album.. The closer is just about everything Who fans could hope for, “Cry If You Want” has some real lift, some musical bite, some scathing lyrics, and a heavy rhythmic guitar solo from Townshend at the end that will leave the listener with little doubt he still has an edge. Overall, this is an improvement over Face Dances in spite of some uneven material at moments. 

    Andy Fairweather Low plays guitar on “Your Turn”, and Tim Gordon plays synths on three tracks, and the electric piano on “Front”. The cover is a clever nod to their past pinball association with the video arcade theme. Roger’s vocals are consistent throughout and Pete offers some strong and support vocals. Roger is still probably the best interpreter of Pete’s songs. Pete is still one of the most incisive lyric writer of his generation.  John’s bright bass work has never wavered over the years. Two of Entwisle's songs are good, and five of Townshend's song are quite good, so that makes for a decent average.  This isn’t The Who of past yore, this is no longer just a power trio with a singer, they are a different band now. One will have to accept the album for what it is, not what they wish it to be. 

    But what most critics miss in their superficial read on the album is something a little uncomfortable for the recent generation of decades before. Pete seems to be doing a self-examination of the idealism of his peers, there’s an uncomfortable truth that much of the idealism of the counterculture has been betrayed as they grew older, got more selfish in the seventies, complacent, and seems to have embraced wealth and materialism – which is all very well and good – but the children of that generation may have to hold their parents to account soon enough. What if the prosperity is put in jeopardy for everyone else? If this is the last Who album, and if Pete’s assessment is true and his generation failed, then there’s very little left for him or the band to say. Most peers may not like looking at that reality, this just a germ of an idea as to why the music press is so polarized about the album. Mirrors are uncomfortable things to face. I offer a qualified recommendation.