Pete Townshend - Gold (2005) 2CD

Nearly ten years after he released his first solo compilation, Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking, Pete Townshend released Gold. At two discs and 34 tracks, this is considerably longer than the previous comp, which was just one disc and 15 songs, but since that 1996 best-of, Townshend hasn't released any new albums: he's dug into the vaults to nearly finish Lifehouse as a box set, issued another installment of the Scoop demo series, and spent sometime reuniting and remastering the Who, but there have been no new albums from Townshend since 1993's Psychoderelict. That said, Gold does cover more ground than the earlier disc: it has more of the Scoops; almost all of his original work from Rough Mix, his 1977 duet album with Ronnie Lane; and it also contains selections from his first solo effort, 1972's Who Came First. So, it's a more thorough overview, and even if it's assembled in a befuddling, seemingly random order, it does give a sense of the range of peculiarity of Townshend's solo work. That said, it's hard to tell who this is for: all the hits are on the 1996 comp and this is so sprawling and densely packed that it's primarily for the serious Townshend fan, who will already have all the albums. But for those handful of fans who want a far-ranging sampler of his best solo work without having to own Empty Glass, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, or White City, this is a useful set.