Legendary English rock group The Who has announced the release of its forthcoming twelfth studio album, Who, which is slated to be released on November 22nd via Interscope Records. Who marks The Who’s first album in thirteen years, a follow up from their eleventh studio album 2006’s Endless Wire, and boasts a reinvigorating single titled “Ball and Chain”.
The current roster for The Who consists of lead singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist/singer/songwriter Pete Townshend. According to a press release found on The Who’s official website Daltrey and Townshend, “…are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap.”
Who’s currently available for pre-order and will be available on all streaming services. The rollout of the latest twelfth studio album comes complete with limited edition double vinyl, digital, CD or cassette formats. Recently the artwork for Who was unveiled in “…New York at the opening of the brand new eight-story Pace contemporary art gallery where the band also performed a short acoustic set. The album cover has been created by famed Pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go! Sir Peter designed and contributed a painting for the sleeve of The Who’s album Face Dances in 1981.”
Without rhyme or reason this outing for The Who doesn’t have a specific theme or concept behind Who, rather it is a set of 11 tracks that Townshend describes:
“This album is almost all new songs written last year, with just two exceptions. There is no theme, no concept, no story, just a set of songs that I (and my brother Simon) wrote to give Roger Daltrey some inspiration, challenges and scope for his newly revived singing voice. Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I’ve tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia if I can. I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Memories are OK, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today. I made new home studio demos of all these songs in the summer of 2018 using a wide collection of instruments old and new. We started recording as The Who in March 2019, and have finished now in late August just in time to make some vinyl . . . maybe even some cassettes . . ready for release in November.”
Lead singer Daltrey reflects on how high he believes the latest offering ranks in their discography, saying “I think we’ve made our best album since Quadrophenia in 1973, Pete hasn’t lost it, he’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge.”
To listen to “Ball and Chain” stream below, via YouTube.
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