Consumer Guide Album

The Who: The Who by Numbers [MCA, 1975]
This record is more depressing than my dispassionate grade would indicate, not just because from the Who we expect better--do we, really?--but because its runaway fatalism invites dispassion. Peter Townshend has more to say about star-doubt than David Crosby or even John Lennon--he's not only honest but exceptionally inquisitive, and he's got a knack for condensing complex ideas. But despite their aperçus songs like "However Much I Booze" and "Dreaming From the Waist" circle around so obsessively that they end up going nowhere; I don't expect answers from the seeker, but I do expect him to enjoy the questions. No surprise that the two songs that break out of the bind are "Blue Red and Gray" (which means satori) and "Slip Kid" (about one more imagined teenager). B+