THE WHO

The Who By Numbers

(MCA)

The Who may be painfully aware of their elder statesmanship, but they are aging gracefully and they ain't sold out yet. That’s the concisest assessment possible of this album, which is a tight piece of commercial and very 70’s-technological rock craftsmanship; but beneath the sheen there's real agony. It is not, like the recent output of, say, the Allman Brothers, a piece of product posing as a journey to the end of the night. Townshend’s integrity remains armored.

. Most readers are familiar with the recent Townshend-Daltrey volleys , so I’ll merely add that Pete, still runs a,tight ship even if, according to rumor, everybody’s part was laid down at radically different times. A rock auteur of supreme discipline, he’s hardly a one-take-and-let's-rape-it-man. He’s a 63-takes-and-let’s-rape-it-man. And he somehow (manipulated spite?) manages to keep Daltrey warm most of the time in spite of the fact that the latter’s singing is of course in a state of progressive degeneration that’s at least interesting to chart as he hews ever truer to Hollywood musical soundtrack pomp and turgidity.