Pete Townshend: Empty Glass
Rough Boys
I Am An Animal
And I Moved
Let My Love Open The Door
Jools And Jim
Keep On Working
Cat's In The Cupboard
A Little Is Enough
Empty Glass
Gonna Get Ya
By 1980, punk had not so much swept the country as hoovered and dusted the country and steam-cleaned the seat covers. The Who adjusted to the new wave with Who Are You, but the death of Keith Moon sent the band into a hiatus interrupted only by retrospective projects. Empty Glass was Pete Townshend’s response to all the above.
There are songs about NME writers (Jools And Jim), songs about coping (Keep On Working), songs about love (Let My Love Open The Door) and songs Roger Daltrey wanted for The Who (Rough Boys).
The result is an album full of superb songs that sound modern (lots of synths and skinny-tie snappiness), feminine (the gorgeous And I Moved, a cousin to Angie’s Townshend-written Peppermint Lump) and simultaneously resigned and furious. It's the best thing any member of The Who did in the 80s, and well worth two of anyone’s ears.
Widely regarded as Townshend's first debut album proper (1972’s Who Came First being wrapped up in devotion to his spiritual guru, Meher Baba), the album gave the guitarist his biggest solo success away from The Who. It reached No.11, while the rampaging opener Rough Boys cracked the Top 40.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in April 1980
- Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
- British Steel - Judas Priest
- Wild Horses - Wild Horses
- Hypnotised - The Undertones
- Seventeen Seconds - The Cure
- Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath
- Flush the Fashion - Alice Cooper
- Go to Heaven - Grateful Dead
- Give 'Em Hell - Witchfynde
- Growing Up in Public - Lou Reed
- Los Angeles - X
- Marauder - Magnun
- Middle Man - Boz Scaggs
- Sky 2 - Sky
- Snakes and Ladders - Gerry Rafferty
- Waters Edge - Sweet
- Solo In Soho - Phil Lynott
What they said...
"When Townshend sings 'When everybody seems unkind / I’ll give you a four-leaf clover /Take all the worry out of your mind', his simple yet naked emotion is sincere, a notion that comes through in his overdubbed, barbershop quartet-style backing vocals and the song’s charming, three-chord arrangement." (Pop Matters)
"Since this is Townshend, it can be a little artier than it needs to be, as on the pseudo-Gilbert & Sullivan chorus of Keep on Working, but the joy of Empty Glass is that his writing is sharp, his performances lively, his gift for pop hooks as apparent as his wit. (AllMusic)
"On his earlier solo excursions, the casually reflective mood suited his light timbre. Here he's coming to terms with love, frustration, punk, and other subjects that overtax his capacity for urgency and anger (and understanding). Who fans find the gap between aspiration and achievement touching, even thematic. Nonbelievers find it whiny. And they hate those ostinatos (Robert Christgau)
What you said...
Mike Canoe: I know I've listened to Empty Glass a few times over the years but nothing has ever made as much of an impression as Let My Love Open The Door or Rough Boys. The former is one of the most perfect pop songs ever written and the latter is like Quadrophenia boiled down to four angry brawling minutes.
Paying closer attention to Empty Glass than usual this week, I like several more, including rockers Jools and Jim and Cat's In The Cupboard as well as the more experimental I Am an Animal and Keep on Working. I haven't really examined the lyrics closely so most of the confessional stuff is lost on me. I start to lose interest hallway through side two as the songs start to get slower and/or longer. Still, a generally enjoyable album by one of the greats.
Adam Ranger: The track A Little is Enough sums up my feelings on this album. Opening track Rough Boys is good, so is the closer Gonna Get Ya. The rest? Not so good. The album suffers from lack of a good vocalist. Some tracks have promising excerpts, but ultimately leave me unimpressed. It seems people really like the track Let My Love Open The Door, but again, I could not get through the whole song. In fact, I cringed a bit. A little is enough for me.
Evan Sanders: Empty Glass was a good listen for Who fans when it came out, during a time when the The Who's future was unclear and their guitarist and singer still had quite a bit to say. The introspective nature of the songs continues a theme we'd been hearing on The Who By Numbers and Who Are You, letting us connect the dots from However Much I Booze to The Music Must Change to "My life's a mess ... I hold an empty glass".
In addition to the lyrics, the album is strong musically, and this group has pointed out the keyboard-forward songs, which also were the case on Who Are You and would be the case on The Who's Face Dances a year later. Some people didn't care for the pop melodies on Let My Love Open The Door and A Little Is Enough, and I respectfully disagree, seeing these as good songs that just wouldn't work with Roger Daltrey singing lead.
Thinking of how The Who turned into almost a tribute band in later years, I wonder about an alternate universe where they would have taken a page from Led Zeppelin and retired the band's name after Keith Moon's death. Empty Glass would have stood out as Pete Townshend's farewell to his band, while setting the stage for his solo career. 7 or 8 out of 10.
Mark Veitch: Average.
Paul Cropper: Very good album. Better than the contemporaneous Who albums. Rough Boys is a great song. Love the video too. Think Daltrey said Rough Boys would have been a great Who song but Townshend disagreed.
Neil McCormack: And I Moved is one of Pete's finest, most beautiful compositions.
Greg Schwepe: This album was played heavily on the FM station where I grew up and was another “senior year album” that gets recalled when remembering albums that were released during my final year of high school. And back then since there was no internet, your musical knowledge of how many and what were the names of the albums someone released was based on what you might have seen in the racks in the record store. And I was sadly mistaken back then when I thought Empty Glass was the first solo album released by Pete Townshend. Wrong!
This started a successful string of 80’s solo albums that I purchased at some point. I mean, Townshend wrote, what, maybe 90% of The Who’s songs? So, his solo stuff should be just as good, right? And you have a little irony with the title as Townshend had a little alcohol problem at this time and has been noted that some of the songs may have been somewhat autobiographical.
The slashing guitar of Rough Boys kicks this one off, but what you may notice here and through the rest of the album, is the great use of interesting keyboard pieces and textures. Townshend may be a guitar smashing guitar hero, but that’s not the only instrument that’s prominent here. Guess that’s not surprising considering how keyboard heavy Who Are You was.
The cascading, repeating piano intro of And I Moved is an excellent example of these keyboards. And that continues with Let My Love Open The Door, another radio regular in my neck of the woods.
Jools And Jim is evidently a dig at journalists who had some not so nice things to say about Keith Moon after his death.
The vinyl started side two with Keep On Working, probably my least favorite song on the album. But it does have a bit of mini-opera feel to it like A Quick One, While He’s Away.
The keyboard-strong songs continue with A Little Is Enough. Maybe my favourite of the songs that were not prominent on the radio. Gonna Get Ya finishes the album with more slashing guitar, you can envision Pete windmilling through this one.
8 out of of 10 on this one. I followed his solo career closely after this, buying the first two solo albums I initially was not aware of, and even all the Scoop series with outtakes, demos, and the like. A very prolific and talented artist that kept busy away from his day job.
Michael J. Culver: I really consider this his first solo album and it is glorious. Rough Boys is about the Sex Pistols, which is also very cool.
Brian Hart: Pete Townshend’s Empty Glass is a little outside my wheelhouse but I’m always open to discovering new music. I’ve always been a fan of The Who but I’m more of a greatest hits fan.
I wasn’t completely unaware of the music on Empty Glass. I grew up hearing Rough Boys and Let My Love Open the Door. These songs are still bangers today. I also really enjoyed Cats In The Cupboard. Everything else on the album is OK but still listenable. A few people have posted that had this album been worked on by the rest of The Who, it probably would’ve been taken to a higher level. I can’t say I disagree, but who knows?
What I can say is that Pete Townsend is a talented musician and songwriter who certainly knows how to craft a song. Even though I probably won’t give Empty Glass another spin, Rough Boys and Let My Love Open the Door will definitely be added to the Spotify list. I give this album 5 out of 10.
Philip Qvist: This is not a bad album at all, and I guess it shouldn't be considering that Pete Townshend was the primary songwriter for The Who. Many have considered Empty Glass to be the best Who album never recorded by the band, and I concur.
I was quite familiar with opening track Rough Boys and Let My Love Open The Door as both got decent coverage down here in South Africa, while my other picks are Am I Moved, A Little Is Enough, Empty Glass and Gonna Get Ya, with a decent support cast from the likes of Tony Butler, Rabbit Bundrick and Simon Phillips.
If I do have a small quibble then it is over the fact that I reckon Roger Daltrey would have taken a few of the songs on this album to the next level, especially Rough Boys and Empty Glass. But that is a relatively minor issue as this is a good album that deserves a few spins.
Nigel Mawdsley: I bought some of Pete Townshend's solo work after seeing the superb Let My Love Open The Door on television many years ago.
I seem to remember that the music papers I was reading when Empty Glass was released gave the album mediocre reviews. Okay, Pete Townshend hasn't got the same vocal chops as Roger Daltrey, but there are some great songs on here.
Rough Boys, Gonna Get You and Empty Glass wouldn't have been out of place on a Who album, whereas Keep On Working sounds like The Kinks. (I read in an interview, again many years ago, when Pete Townshend stated that Ray Davies was a better songwriter than him, a very humble statement.)
Another track I really like is the Peter Gabriel-esque A Little Is Enough which deserves repeat plays.
As stated, Pete Townshend's voice is an acquired taste and although some of his solo material 'melds into one' for me there are still some truly excellent songs from his solo catalogue. 7 out of 10 for Empty Glass.
John Davidson: I dont think I've ever heard this before.
Who Are You was a huge hit and The Who seemed to embrace the challenge of punk. They morphed from mods to hard rockers and, despite producing rock operas, managed to avoid being labelled as prog, so they had plenty experience in navigating the fickle, changing nature of music and youth culture. But then Keith Moon got too ill to work, Roger Daltrey tried acting and this left old Pete at a loose end. Enter Empty Glass.
Townsend can certainly write great songs and plays a mean guitar, but I don't care much for his singing.
Rough Boys would sound better with Daltrey at the mic, but is otherwise a decent song. I Am An Animal reminds me of Behind Blue Eyes, at least in the vocal phrasing. And I Moved starts the slide into quirky new wave pop that characterised the rest of the album, but Squeeze had better phrasing and more wit, Elvis Costello had more grit and The Pretenders and Tom Petty had better tunes.
Let My Love Open the Door is a low point. There are also throwbacks to some almost Beatles-esque sequences (like on Keep On Working) that sound out of place. Apart from Rough Boys, there's nothing here I'd want to hear again.
Final score: 7.33 (51 votes cast, total score 374)
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