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Rating: I bought this record on a Sunday afternoon at a stall. I was hesitant about how Entwistle would perform solo live, without his usual bandmates.
Answer: he was good.
The album starts with the instrumental "Horror Rock", followed by "The Real Me" from "Quadrophenia": not a bad version, the voice of guitarist Godfrey Townsend (yes, without the h, completely unrelated to Pete) is not bad at all. It moves on to a piece I discovered thanks to this record, "Darker Side Of The Night" is a beautiful ballad, one of the best tracks on the album. Then there's "Success Story" (from "The Who By Numbers" album, quite underrated if you ask me) and that great song "905" (from that terribly bad album "Who Are You"). At no.6 there's the previously unknown to me "I'll Try Again Today", written by Entwistle in collaboration with drummer Steve Luongo, who in the following track, "Under A Raging Moon" (title track of a solo album by Roger Daltrey where many famous drummers participated as a tribute to Keith Moon) performs an incredibly long drum solo: live it might be great, but on the record, it's a bit much.
Then it moves to "Endless Vacation" which is listened to without any particular upheaval of the guts, while the guts are turned (with emotion though) with "Too Late The Hero": I will never tire of repeating how beautiful this song is. How beautiful this song is. After "Had Enough" (from "Who Are You") which works much better here than in the original version, burdened by excessive arrangement and production, there are the two final tracks, two classics: "Shakin' All Over" and that "Young Man Blues" by Mose Allison which was a staple of The Who's live performances. Great finale.
An album that's not bad, but its flaws include the limited presence of John as a vocalist (Godfrey Townsend sings most of the time), that never-ending drum solo on "Under A Raging Moon" and the excessive duration of the record, which exceeds 60 minutes.
Still, it's an album worth listening to, even if The Ox has done better, for example in "Too Late The Hero". R.I.P. The Ox.
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