Review: Vinyl Reissues of Pete Townshend's 'Iron Man: The Musical' and 'Psychoderelict (Music Only)'

After The Who broke up, Pete Townshend seemed to want to distance himself from his old band's roiling and raw hard rock as much as possible, so he issued a series of slick LP musicals that ranged from the personal to the surprisingly impersonal. First up was a project of the former stripe, as White City was largely inspired by Townshend's experiences working alongside his then-wife in a women's shelter, and though it revealed its 1985 origins with its synthesizers and glossy production, there was still some bite in tracks like "Give Blood" and "Secondhand Love". With its themes of anger, shame, and fame, White City was nearly as personal a record as either of Townshend's two more Who-like ones that preceded it.

His decision to next adapt Ted Hughes's environmentalist sci-fi children's novel The Iron Man was surely an unexpected detour, not just because it was so different from anything Townshend had yet to do in terms of genesis and sound, but also because it was the album that coincided with the-band-formerly-known-as-The-Detours' huge reunion tour of 1989. This case of bizarre synchronicity becomes slightly less bizarre when considering that two of the album's tracks feature Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle. The fact that one of those tracks is utterly light-weight and the other is a mechanical cover of "Fire" by Townshend's old-protege Arthur Brown returns us to weirdo world. Guest appearances by two very-un-Who-like legends, John Lee Hooker and Nina Simone, ship us further out, especially since the songs they sing don't play to their strengths. The cutesy "Over the Top" couldn't be further from Hooker's gnarly blues. With its limited melody and lite hip-hop beat, "Fast Food" could be a Fine Young Cannibals song; it certainly doesn't sound like one worthy of Nina Simone's brooding expressiveness. The album's one memorable song and most significant single, "A Friend Is a Friend", is outlandishly sweet and features a choir of singing children. "My Generation" this is not. 

Then Townshend took time to develop an actual musical, the stage version of The Who's warhorse Tommy, before resuming his solo recording career. This music+dialogue project would return him to the more personal lane of White City. In hindsight, Psychoderelict, the clammy tale of washed-up rock star Ray High, who the media frames as a child-pornography enthusiast as he works on a high-concept album called Lifehouse Gridlife, is too personal for comfort, prognosticating the child-porn accusations that Townshend would face ten years from the record's release. He was cleared of all charges, but it's still not the kind of thing he'd probably want to revisit, so one wonders if he has any reservations about the fact that Psychoderelict will now be a topic of discussion again as its music-only edition is making its half-speed-mastered vinyl debut, along with the return of Iron Man: The Musical to vinyl.

Perhaps it's just best not to focus on the story too much, which is as creepy as it is uncompelling. There are some good songs on Psychoderelict, most notably the pounding single "English Boy" and the romantic "Now and Then", and some pretty nice synth experiments. Hearing them without the dialogue interludes that trip up the non-music-only edition makes the record more pleasurable. 

It also makes "Flame" all the more incongruous. On the dialogue version of Psychoderelict, at least we're fully aware we're listening to a play, and "Flame" serves a role in it as Ray High's bid for a pop hit. Without such a clear context, it's like Celine Dion suddenly invading a Pete Townshend record. Fortunately, this sub-Diane Warren horror show comes at the end of a side on this vinyl edition of Psychodereliuct, so it's mercifully easy to skip. Please, please, for the love of all that is righteous, skip it.

As for the vinyl, it generally sounds good, although the fact that Townshend made these two particular records at the front-end of the CD age means that they lack analogue warmth and depth. They still sound as good as they probably can, with highs that don't get shrill and lows that are full without giving one bowel distress.

The vinyl is flat and quiet, with only fleeting moments of non-fill. Universal Music's half-speed remastered records sometimes have inner groove distortion issues, and the second LP of Psychoderelict does have such issues, but thankfully it only interferes with the overlong reprise of "English Boy" and "Flame". Only the most masochistic listener will even be aware of the latter case.