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Aging rears its head in song on 'last' Who album

The cover of WHO by The Who (AP) The cover of LP1 by Liam Payne (AP) The cover of Fine Lines by Harry Styles (AP) The cover of The Gospel According To Water by Joe Henry (AP) The cover of Bonnie "Prince" Billy's new album (AP)
The cover of WHO by The Who (AP) The cover of LP1 by Liam Payne (AP) The cover of Fine Lines by Harry Styles (AP) The cover of The Gospel According To Water by Joe Henry (AP) The cover of Bonnie "Prince" Billy's new album (AP)

A The Who

WHO

Interscope

While frequently joining forces for tours and other projects, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey have released just two studio albums as The Who since 1982, with 2006's Endless Wire their last such work until now.

WHO sees the pair backed by some of their frequent collaborators since the deaths of drummer Keith Moon in 1979 and bassist John Entwistle in 2002, such as drummer Zak Starkey and bassist Pino Palladino. Others include drummers Joey Waronker and Carla Azar, bassist Gus Seyffert and keyboard player Benmont Tench.

Still, all the splendid backing notwithstanding -- and not forgetting co-producer and multi-instrumentalist, either -- it's the high standards of The Who's last remaining trademarks, Townshend's songwriting and guitar playing and Daltrey's superlative singing, that make the album such a joy.

Townshend has written a strong batch of songs full of yearning and confronting the passage of time, many carrying shades and echoes of his past work. He rips power chords and performs slinky riffs; and his vocals, especially in support of Daltrey's leads, are still a highlight.

Daltrey, for his part, with health concerns behind him, sings with power, sensitivity, range and conviction, just as he has done for decades.

While it doesn't have the same air of finality as Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker, released just weeks before his death in 2016, based on their recording habits of the past decades, WHO may well be their last studio album.

The catchy, propulsive opener "All This Music Must Fade" seems like a message about Townshend and Daltrey's difficult relationship, even though that seems to have mellowed: "I don't care/I know you're gonna hate this song. And that's it/We never really got along." It may also be a missive to their fans and closes with what will become Townshend's most famous last words since his "I saw ya!" at the end of "Magic Bus."

"Ball and Chain," "Street Song" and "Beads on One String" are topical but many other of the 11 tracks (plus three on the deluxe edition) are simultaneously defiant, vulnerable and contemplative, with aging repeatedly rearing its head.

On the rousing "Rocking in Rage," like a coda to "Quadrophenia," the talk is still about their generation: "I thought I'd be calmer/Not rocking in rage," even if "I'm too old to fight." It's a shiver-inducing Daltrey performance.

Townshend sings lead on "I'll Be Back," a nostalgic tune with strings and harmonica, that seems lifted from his All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes 1982 solo album.

On "I Don't Wanna Get Wise," Daltrey seems to have changed some of the lyric sheet's "I" pronouns into "he," "we" and "us," as if making space for himself in the rocking mini-biography of a song -- "He was drunk/I was blind/Though we tried to be kind" -- and belting out a "We got wise" at the end.

Thankfully, it's much too late for Daltrey and Townshend to die before they get old, so with WHO they show that even in rock 'n' roll, it's possible to age both with grace and vigor and without abandoning purpose. Or lose the talent to make stirring, highly gratifying music.

-- PABLO GORONDI

The Associated Press

C-Liam Payne

LP1

Capitol

One Direction fans have reason to rejoice this holiday season: They get not just one, but two full albums from former members -- Liam Payne and Harry Styles. Unfortunately for one of them, the reception will be frosty.

Payne's 17-track LP1 never really gets off the ground, a collection of monotonous club songs that often sound like warmed-over Justin Beiber rejects. It doesn't help that some of the offerings are more than 2 years old.

The first tune -- "Stack It Up" with A Boogie Wit da Hoodie -- is the best and then the album falls off a cliff into a swamp of skittering drums, synth and libidinous lyrics ("Flippin' that body/Go head, I'll go tails"). It breaks no new sonic ground and has a faintly musty whiff. (Weirdly, Payne finally stops grinding for a weepy original Christmas song at the very end.)

There's a good reason for the first tune being good -- it's co-written by Ed Sheeran and Payne doesn't try to disguise its origins, mimicking Sheeran vocal tics and flow. For a first album, Payne surprisingly doesn't show up: He had a hand co-writing only four songs and fails to do anything interesting with his voice.

While Styles is off making fascinating, intriguing music, Payne is clearly phoning in his debut from the club. He sounds happiest on "Both Ways," when he boasts about his girlfriend's bisexuality. "I don't discriminate/Bring it back to my place/Yeah she like it both ways."

The album reaches ludicrous heights on "Strip That Down," a 2-year-old embarrassment that credits no less than 15 writers, including Sheeran, Quavo and even Shaggy, since they've lifted so much of his 19-year-old hit "It Wasn't Me."

"You know I used to be in 1D (Now I'm out free)" Payne sings on it.

The sound of freedom never sounded so banal.

-- MARK KENNEDY

The Associated Press

AHarry Styles

Fine Line

Columbia

Arriving just in time to mess up everyone's best-of-the-year music lists is Harry Styles' sophomore album, Fine Line. The former One Direction member richly deserves a spot on yours.

The 12-track album continues Styles' tour through his musical influences -- his salute to rock royalty -- and yet also shows signs that he's coming up with his own sound. "Shine, step into the light," he sings. It is advice he is also taking.

The men of One Direction are each taking their own direction, but Styles' proves the most ambitious (Take notes, Liam Payne). He has co-written every song and also adds guitar, dulcimer and supplies backing vocals.

Styles has reunited with producers Jeff Bhasker, Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon, who helped mold his sound on his first album. And the singles released so far -- the psychedelic foot-stomper "Watermelon Sugar," the soaring, soulful "Lights Up" and the blissful poppy "Adore You" -- are all different and great.

There's also the Queen-ish "Treat People with Kindness," which is a cheerful, funky slice of '70s, with hand-claps, tambourine and Styles trading verses with a choir. ("All together now!" he asks.) The most challenging song is "She," which has a Lennon-McCartney vibe, grinding guitar and crazy keys. Lyrically, its a cousin to "Eleanor Rigby."

Sometimes, the album feels like a game of Guess the Influence. "Canyon Moon"? Bob Dylan. "Golden"? Beach Boys, right? "She"? A bit of Santana. But Styles' references are lighter this time than on his debut. He's less aping his heroes than just using some of their colors.

There are call-backs to his first album. That had the song "Kiwi" and the new one has more luscious fruits -- strawberries, cherry and that watermelon. The song "Falling" once again finds Styles alone in bed with wandering hands, where he was unhappily on "From the Dining Table" from 2017.

Love -- mostly its absence -- is the lyrical bedrock, with Styles showing his lonely, brokenhearted side. "Don't call me 'baby' again," he asks an ex in one song. "Don't call him 'baby,'" he asks in another. "Cherry" seems to be about his French former flame. "I just miss your accent," he sings, and the song ends with a woman's voice cooing in French. (The title may be a joke on "cherie.") "I'm well aware I write too many songs about you," he writes in the piano-driven ballad "Falling."

The moody, string-based Fine Line ends the album, another song about the push-pull of former flames and broken things. But it concludes with hope: "We'll be all right." If he keeps making music like this, we all will be.

-- MARK KENNEDY

The Associated Press

A-Joe Henry

The Gospel According to Water

earMUSIC

Given a few months to live released a creative gush in Joe Henry and the result is The Gospel According to Water, one of the best albums of his fruitful career.

Fortunately, Henry's cancer is in remission while he continues to get treatment.

Henry's production work has won him three Grammys but, as the proverb says, sometimes it's the shoemaker who wears the worst shoes. Henry proves it wrong by making a wise choice regarding his own work and leaving the 13 songs, which he initially viewed as demos, as stark and direct as they were recorded.

Accompanying himself on guitar, the sparse but supportive backing comes from the likes of son Levon on sax and clarinet, guitarist John Smith and Patrick Warren on keyboards.

Henry sings with his usual expressiveness but without exaggerating and doesn't consider the songs "dark in nature" despite their time of origin, but rather a reflection of "gratitude, compassion to self" and being in love with life.

This is evident on tunes like the title track, "In Time for Tomorrow," "Book of Common Prayer" and "Bloom" -- songs that sound, at times, as if they could have been on Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks had it been his reconciliation album instead of divorce.

Though there are concentrated mentions of death and prayers, one of the words heard most often is "light."

Those who believe in miracles and trust in music's healing power may consider the outstanding The Gospel According to Water as a pilgrimage, but even the skeptics and agnostics will be stirred by the depth and beauty of Joe Henry's songs.

Hot tracks: all

-- PABLO GORONDI

The Associated Press

Weekend on 12/12/2019

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