EMPTY GLASS Pete Townshend Atco SD 33-100
EMPTY GLASS is a personal triumph for Pete Townshend. The self-doubt that dominated his writing on THE WHO BY NUMBERS and WHO ARE YOU is here transformed into a new confidence. And Townshend's band (including Who sideman John "Rabbit" Bundrick on piano, Tony Butler on bass and a variety of drummers) sounds more assured than the Who themselves have on their recent albums.
Musically EMPTY GLASS is built on chords, licks and phrases familiar from Townshend's 15-year career: The "oooo" of the background voices often recalls TOMMY, there's a couplet straight out of QUADROPHENIA in the title song. But Townshend boldly combines and juxtaposes loud and soft passages, guitar and piano, the aggressive and the ethereal, producing a set of songs both complex and memorable.
"Rough Boys," the opening track, addresses the children of the new wave from the perspective of one who understands their anger but is not intimidated by it ("Gonna get inside your bitter mind," he sings). In the songs that follow Townshend allows himself an occasional moment of righteous anger, as when he attacks the insensitivity of critics to the death of Who drummer Keith Moon in "Jools and Jim." But for the most part the guiding principles are maturity, acceptance ("Let My Love Open the Door," "Keep on Working") and religious faith ("And I Moved").
Even the title song, which dramatizes the singer's spiritual battle with himself, ends with serenity, as Townshend intones: "Don't let down moods entrance youake the wine and shout." It's followed by the hard-rock payoff of "Gonna Get Ya," which begins with thrilling guitar chords and call-and-response vocals, progresses to a long mid-section dominated by Bundrick's piano, and comes to a rousing finish. EMPTY GLASS isn't a finish at all, but a new beginning for Pete Townshend.
