Pete Townshend - Looking for Words - Non-Album Tracks (1997-2001)

I must say I'm disappointed with what Pete Townshend has done with his music career since the early 1990s. 1993 is the last time he's released a solo album of new music, remarkably enough. He spends a lot of time touring with the Who, but they've only put out one album of new music since 1982 ("Endless Wire" in 2006), and they've become a nostalgia act leaning on their long ago glory days. (Reportedly the Who will release a new studio album in the next year, so I hope they come up with something good and new.)

What frustrates me is that Townshend is a musical genius who could do so much better. Other artists of his age and caliber such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, and so on have continued to put out new music on a fairly regular basis. But what this album of stray tracks shows is that Townshend has been making new music all along, it's just that he doesn't seem particularly interested in gathering it into albums and sharing it with the public. And that's just considering what's publicly available. The indications are he's done a lot more with his home recording than has even been bootlegged.

Anyway, this album is a mix of all sorts of different things. I named it after the song "Looking for Words" (which ironically has words) because Townshend made a lot of instrumentals during these years. There are five here. More songs are covers, or duets with famous people of songs from earlier in his career ("So Sad about Us" and "Heart to Hang Onto"). I only could two new original songs with lyrics "Looking for Words" and "Can You Help the One You Really Love." That said, the album is still a solid listen for any Pete Townshend fan.

About half the album is officially unreleased stuff, mostly cover versions done in concert. The sound quality of those are pretty good, and of course the officially released stuff sound excellent.

01 Prelude 970519 [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
02 Christine's Tune [Devil in Disguise] (Pete Townshend)
03 Embraceable You (Pete Townshend)
04 Going Up the Country (Pete Townshend with Taj Mahal)
05 On the Road Again (Pete Townshend)
06 Hinterland Rag [Piano Rag for Three Hands] [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
07 Heart to Hang Onto (Pete Townshend & Eddie Vedder)
08 Can You Help the One You Really Love (Pete Townshend)
09 Collings [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
10 So Sad about Us (Pete Townshend & Paul Weller)
11 Variations on Dirty Jobs [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
12 Looking for Words (Pete Townshend)
13 St. James Infirmary (Pete Townshend)
14 Wired to the Moon [Part 2] [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16696910/PETTWNSHND1997-2001_LokngforWrds_atse.zip.html

I don't know what year the photo I used for the album cover is from. I'm guessing it's from roughly around the era of this album, give or take. But I wanted to use it since it's a rare chance to see Townshend tinkering in his home recording studio.