Legendary rock band The Who have just announced the details behind their new record, which will be called Who, sharing ‘Ball and Chain,’ the first official single off the forthcoming album.
A pulsating, acoustic-focused track, ‘Ball and Chain’ is an intriguing listen where Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend weave through emotional lyrics with increasing intensity, building up to a near-explosive finale at the end of the track.
“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,” praised Daltrey when speaking about Who, the group’s first album since 2006’s Endless Wire.
“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,” added Townshend.
The guitarist continued, “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 okay, 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,” Townshend said of the writing process, detailing, “We started recording as The Who in March 2019, and finished in late August just in time to make some vinyl – maybe even some cassettes – ready for release in November.”
Listen to the new song ‘Ball and Chain’ below.
The Who are currently in the midst of a North American orchestral tour, and we cannot wait for their brand new album to finally be out.
