5 keepers
keeper avg .417
On the second studio album with drummer Kenny Jones, The Who seemed to pick up where Face Dances left off, forging ahead without Moon's insane energy as a team of mature adults. The lyrically inscrutable "Athena," the album's Top-40 lead-off track, though mostly acoustic like "Squeeze Box" and "Imagine A Man," still has propulsive energy. The sample-driven "I've Known No War"****, "It's Your Turn," and John Entwistle's lyrically insightful "Dangerous"**** ("fear is the key to your soul" seems more fitting today than ever) fit into The Who's arena-ready "Baba O'Reily" mid-tempo anthemic mode. Entwistle also contributed the frantically humorous "One At A Time"**** (on which he sang and played the horn intro) and "It's Your Turn." But the album's one unqualified success is "Eminence Front"*****, Townshend's skewering of the drug-fueled party culture. Townshend's distinctive sequencer work drives the song, even more so than on "Baba O'Reily", and his barked-out chorus adds to the song's drone-y menace. "Cry If You Want"****, like "Love Reign O'er Me", "In A Hand Or A Face," and "Who Are You," continues The Who's pattern of ending the album in forceful fashion. Unfortunately songs like ballads "One Life's Enough" and "A Man Is A Man," and even title track "It's Hard" and the Springsteen-like "Why Did I Fall For That" are especially subdued for The Who, lacking punch even at rock tempo. But with several tracks better than most of what The Who had done since Quadrophenia I think the album is far better than the mostly negative critical consensus suggests.
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