Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The best of, the culmination of a life’s work, easier perhaps in the artistic world of poetry, film or music than dealing with the general public day after day in a shop or waiting on tables.
The problem with best of albums, in the sense of the music world, is that in the 21st Century the best of, the unsurpassed genius of the artist is normally confined to three major outcomes. These are usually the band that has been going for about two albums and the record company want to screw another dime, the hearty dollar out the public with just a new cover to keep the interest peaked, the best of which in every possible way you know has not been chosen by the artist at all or third, and perhaps with more sympathy to the work, the sad and untimely passing of the performer. Normally all these though smack of the loss of innocence, the chance of money being exchanged with the loss of artistic freedom and integrity lost forever.
Pete Townshend’s Truancy is none of those, scintillatingly unique in its presentation, the album if anything does itself a disservice by being on the understated side. This is not a collection of songs destined to seen as a crass attempt to make money from out of nowhere, it is more gathering of a life in perspective and away from the main towering spotlights that come part and parcel of being one quarter of arguably one of the biggest bands to ever come out of Britain, if not the Rock hemisphere so many rush to.
Truancy represents arguably the missing, the absence of what many later fans of The Who might expect and for that it is more powerful, it doesn’t need to have the excess of other work attached to it. This is Pete Townshend at his creative high because he is not writing for three other members, it is honest, simple and in places just simply a work of art, unadulterated, uncomplicated and attention grabbing without going into the sense of the wonderfully overblown. This is no Tommy, No Quadrophenia or even Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy, this is Pete Townshend without the adornments, just a collection of songs from his solo career that showcase the man behind The Who.
Tracks such as Sheraton Gibson, My Baby Gives It Away, Rough Boys, Face Dances, English Boy and the excellent reflective feel to You Came Back all sit with style and a grace that many will have missed over the years. With the juxtaposition that comes with two new songs, Guantanamo and How Can I Help You being added to the overall package, Pete Townshend is again to be seen as a maverick, a humble genius with great depth and a soul in need of musical attainment and grace at all times.
Some say you can’t beat The Who; undoubtedly you also cannot contain Pete Townshend either. A great collection of songs by one of the true legends of British rock!
Ian D. Hall