The Who’s a final studio album, WHO, released in 2019, “did nothing,” according to Roger Daltrey, who ruled out the idea of new music from the band in a recent interview.
When asked whether he would work with Pete Townshend once more, Daltrey responded, “What’s the point?”
The Who’s frontman revealed it to NME after announcing a solo performance on March 26 at the Royal Albert Hall to benefit the Teenage Cancer Foundation. Richard Ashcroft, Kelly Jones’ newest endeavor, Far From Saints, and Joan Armatrading will all perform with him at the event. Since helping to organize concerts at the storied London theatre for more than 20 years, Daltrey has served as an honorary patron of the organization. This year’s lineup also features Wet Leg, Courteeners, and Kasabian.
Although the Who’s a twelfth studio album, “Who,” debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and received generally favorable reviews from critics, it appears that Daltrey wasn’t particularly pleased with the album’s commercial success and reception, probably in comparison to the band’s previous records. The singer added that rather than appreciating new music, people preferred to listen to old songs. Daltrey is pleased that their music is being enjoyed by a large number of new young people. Yet, he also thinks that record labels are ineffective at promoting fresh music these days.
Roger Daltrey on a possible album, said, “What’s the point? What’s the point of records? We released an album four years ago [2019’s ‘Who’], and it did nothing. It’s a great album too, but there isn’t the interest out there for new music these days. People want to hear the old music. I don’t know why, but that’s the fact.
We’ve got quite a lot of young people in our audience these days. It’s quite interesting that they’re picking up on our music. But record companies, they just don’t do the same job as they used to.”
The Who vocalist believes that there will be no benefit from releasing new music. He appears ready to reprise their older hits because the audience seems to agree. The Who will be supported by a full orchestra on their first tour in six years this summer. He said, “When you hear real strings and amplify the orchestrations with the arrangements we’re doing, the sound is just extraordinary, And what it does to you physically, to hear real violins, real cellos and the whole orchestra bit other than synthesisers… Because we’re so used to synthesisers now; it’s really like the live equivalent of a vinyl record, as opposed to the CD player. CDs are crap! I’s only when you hear vinyl that you realise how crap they are.”