Another man without a woman, dropped like a tool no longer required...

This is probably the best case in the "albums that I like where I hate the single" category. Pete Townshend's solo output has been pretty spotty, between odds-and ends collections like Scoop
or niche projects like the Iron Man musical. White City fits in with the niche recordings, meant to accompany a short film by Richard Lowenstein. The album provided Townshend with his last gasp of pop commercial success, with the #26 pop hit "Face The Face".

Now I don't know why, but that song kills me. I don't mean kills me in a good, overwhelmed, way; it's more of a "I threw up a little in my mouth" sort of way. Maybe I just don't get it. I mean here is a lyric.

We've got to fool the fools
and plan the plans
We must rule the rules
got to stand the stands
We must fight the fight
and fall the falls
we must light the light
and call the calls
We must race the race
so we can face the face

Wow. What the hell is that supposed to mean? And then he starts shouting "New York, Chicago, London, Glasgow"! Huh? Was there some sort catastrophe in 1985 that I missed that could produce this? This is "We Built This City" awful. ("We Built This City" rule - it's the worst song ever put out not just because it's bad but because it was made by people who should know better.) What's even more puzzling is the rest of the album is not bad at all. Opener "Give Blood" is a simple but driving anti-war piece. Townshend also touches on pop ("Brilliant Blues") and tropical ("Hiding Out") musical themes. "White City Fighting", co-written with Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour, best exemplifies the album's portrait of underclass London, in which White City is a neighborhood. The highlight is "Crashing By Design", a study of a man's despair in losing his family carried along by what seems like the rock version of the Peanuts theme. Only a the end, with the confusing "Come To Mama", do things get muddled again. White City is pretty satisfying for mid-80's rock, as long as I can skip over "Face the Face".

Grade: C+
Best Cuts: "Crashing By Design"
Weakest Links: "Face The Face", "Come To Mama"