BY NUMBERS

The Who By Numbers is a charming, touching and intimate album. And it is one of the band's most personal. The themes reveal a slightly matured and more cynical The WHO. The playing is still inspired with Townsend's finest melodies. It all makes for a consistently enjoyable listen. I find it more diverse an slightly more distinctive than the band's other albums, full of electric and acoustic guitars, from the quirky rocking numbers "Slip Kid" and "Squeeze Box," to the sweet slow harmonic ones "They Are All In Love" and "Blue Red And Grey" where Pete plays the ukulele. "Imagine A Man" and the upbeat "However Much I Booze" show some darker sides concerned with losing onesef in drink and the hollow transparent world of fame, though the guys are never without their usual wit. It is true that some of the greatest works of art are misunderstood. This album often is. It is a lot like Alice Cooper's "From The Inside", something not so directly for the masses. Only for some it strikes a chord, but that is just fine! That is what art is all about after all.