It's Hard

by

The Who

Edit

"I hate it!" was lead singer Roger Daltrey's opinion of "It's Hard," The Who's last studio album to date. This was in stark contrast to Pete Townshend's view; the guitarist/songwriter seemed eager about the album and felt that The Who had been musically born again and revitalized. The same difference between the opinions of Daltrey and Townshend appeared among critics and fans. Rolling Stone called "It's Hard" The Who's best since "Who's Next," while others were less impressed. Some fans ate it up, others quickly spit it out. Whether all of this has anything to do with the fact that The Who hasn't recorded another studio album since then or not, "It's Hard" is a headstrong album that contains as much angst, bitterness, and determination as their most heraled albums.

"It's Hard" is identifiably 80s, considering the synthesizers that fill the album; but it should be noted that The Who were among the first to innovate the use of the synthesizer in the first place (see "Who's Next," recorded eleven years earlier). But the range of emotions overwhelm even the synthesizers. The entire album is an anthem. The Who's instantly recognizable contempt for the fact that they were getting older is obvious; Roger Daltrey belts bassist John Entwistle's words in 'It's Your Turn,' "I was a face in a magazine/When you were still playing with your plasticine." Also evident is the group's disenchantment with the emptiness of the 1982 music scene, as they state in the title track "Any kid can chatter, few can inform. It's hard..." Much of the material here is catchy, even when it gets down to the nitty-gritty, examples being the bar band-like 'One At a Time' and the more accessible 'Why Did I Fall For That,' 'Cooks County,' and 'Eminence Front,' the closest thing to an audience-embraced hit on the album...except of course the opener 'Athena.'

There are four bonus tracks on this remaster of "It's Hard," all of them recorded live. These concert tracks, especially the title song, reveal to the audience the true anthemic purposes of this album. Another studio release from The Who would have been great, but for the time being, we are left with "It's Hard" as their studio swan song, and frankly it doesn't get much better than this.