Scooped
Having made some of the most incendiary and evergreen rock music with theWho, nobody would disparage Pete Townshend for taking it easy. But the wildcat guitarist is nothing if not generous to his fans. Aside from the grinding tour schedule he has maintained both as a solo artist and with the band through his senior years, Townshend has also kept completists satisfied with a steady stream of albums that chronicle his personal demo recordings--1983'sScoop, 1987'sAnother Scoopand 2001'sScoop 3. As if that wasn't enough, he has now pared down the best tracks from those releases and packaged them in a convenient two-CD set titled, yes,Scooped. The 35 tracks included cover everything from well-worn gems like "Pinball Wizard" and "Magic Bus" in raw demo form to more obscure pleasures like "Recorders" and "Body Language." It doesn't exactly measure up to the fireworks on display on theMy Generationremasters, but Townshend fans can certainly appreciate the gesture.--Aidin Vaziri