Roger Daltrey has said The Who has made its best album in 46 years.
“I think we’ve made our best album since Quadrophenia,” the singer said during a Q&A on Thursday.
Daltrey spoke about The Who’s forthcoming 12th studio album – its first since 2006’s Endless Wire.
“When I first heard the songs I was very skeptical as I didn’t think I could do it,” he recalled. “I thought Pete [Townshend] had written a really great solo album and I said to him, ‘Pete, what do you need to do this for? Release it as a solo album, it’s great.’ But he said he wanted it to be a Who album.
“So I took the songs away and I listened to them, and listened to them some more, and I had some ideas. He let me have a bit of freedom with changing a few things, changing the tenses of songs and other little things. And he gave me complete melodic freedom. And I gotta tell you that after being very skeptical I’m now incredibly optimistic.”
Daltrey credited his bandmate. “Pete hasn’t lost it,” he said. “He’s still a fabulous songwriter and he’s still got that cutting edge, man.”
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Last year, Townshend described the still-untitled album as a collection of “dark ballads, heavy rock stuff, experimental electronica, sampled stuff and clichéd Who-is tunes that began with a guitar that goes yanga-dang.”
The Who plays Toronto on Sept. 3 and Vancouver on Oct. 21.