But the fumbling is almost as illuminating as the flashes of inspiration dotting this album. Far from exploiting a random set of discards, Odds & Sods gives the listener a fascinating glimpse of one of our best bands, caught in the process of forging a style. While Odds & Sods affords fresh evidence of the Who's durability as rock stylists, it
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also vividly reveals the elements behind that style — its limitations as well as its scope.
Peter Townshend, the band's composer and guiding light, appears here not as the grand architect but as the ingenious artisan. He deals in cliches, but they are his own cliches, so deftly assembled that they've become a bold musical signature. Townshend's stylistic units function best in brief doses or in formats where he can move quickly from theme to theme. "Glow Girl" on this album and "Rael" on The Who Sell Out sustain their momentum, whereas Townshend's longer works—Tommy, Quadrophenia—occasionally falter.
Most of Townshend's songs are structured chromatically. By modulating stock riffs and progressions, he creates harmonic variety yet preserves rock basics. In fact, Townshend's genius lies in creating memorable pop from familiar elements: He has opened up the process of rock composition without significantly altering its ingredients.
Although the Who, as performers, present a patchwork of contradictions, their identity and playing are central to the successful realization of Townshend's ideas. Daltrey shouts as much as he sings, but his unlikely presence—he seems an unblemished but worldly orphan — helps temper Townshend's piety. Similarly, Keith Moon's zaniness and Entwistle's stoic humor both extend Townshend's own sense of irony and help counter his occasional pretentious-ness. There is a naturalness and taste of reality about this flawed but inviolable quartet of musicians.
The group's slashing guitar chords, explosive drum fills and anarchic breaks all add up to a classic rock style. Although Townshend has been its principal designer, it is a style that belongs to the group collectively, as Odds & Sods proves once again. Without Moon's kinetic percussion, Daltrey's vocal posturing or Entwistle's bristling bass, Townshend's songs tend to drag.
Townshend's solo version of "Pure and Easy" (on Who Came First) flounders in awkward sentiment ("as men try to realize the simple secret of the note in us all"*). But the version on Odds & Sods is by contrast a minor masterpiece. Uncluttered and blunt, the band's arrangement catalyzes the track, while Roger Daltrey
