Simon Townshend - Sweet Sound

I recall hearing “I’m The Answer” on the radio by Simon back in 1983. The couple of times I heard it, it was always followed by a comment about Pete singing backing vocals, or Pete produced it, or Simon was Pete's little brother. It was a minor hit, or a near miss depending on how you look at it. I sort of liked it and I almost bought the record because it had a cool-looking cover. Simon was staring into the camera and pouting (his hair dresser gets a credit in the liner notes). He was either covered in grease or coal, depending on what kind of backstory you've invented to take up the obligatory 1,000 words the picture is supposed to conjure up. Coal or grease, the remarkable thing about the cover is the pristine white shirt. How did he keep the shirt clean?

Sweet Sound was indeed produced by Simon’s elder brother, Pete, who had fifteen years on him. One could be forgiven for thinking this was nepotism at its worst. Except it wasn’t ... not really, though I’m sure it didn’t hurt, but it could only help so much. I know the relationship was played up, but let’s be honest: by ’83, The Who weren’t exactly commercial darlings. Sure, Pete’s solo career was doing okay, he wasn’t a spring chicken anymore, as he was pushing (gasp) 40! Yeah, at the time he was old. Looking back on it now that I’m over 60, he was still a bloody kid.

Anyway, here was wee Simon in his early twenties trying his hand at being a rock star. I put the record on, and when “I’m The Answer” came through the speakers, it felt vaguely familiar, but honestly, with the passage of time, it didn’t have enough legs to qualify for the nostalgia discount. 

As a result, I was able to listen to this with fresh ears, and what I heard was surprisingly good — much more so than I ever imagined. I know I'm probably going to contradict this assessment in a bit, but this really was much better than I expected.

First off, I should address the elephant in the room: Pete. There’s always going to be a bit of familial influence, and Simon does share a similar tonal quality to his brother, but honestly, as I was listening to the album, the name that popped into my head wasn’t Pete. It was Mark Hollis from Talk Talk, and this is where it gets fun. The songs I associate with Talk Talk, particularly “It’s My Life” and “Life’s What You Make It,” came out after Sweet Sound. Go figure. Oddly, I've read that Mark would at times remind others of Pete ... something in the tone or delivery. Ah, the circle of life.

By 1983, much of the ’80s sound was firmly established, and here was Simon crafting an album that was very much of the ’80s while also seeming to follow the tried-and-true patterns of ’70s rock. The mixture of the two works a lot better than I expected it to. I was actually kind of hoping to take the piss on this one, and here I am having to revisit the unconscious bias I brought to the table.

I’ve finished the first pass, and I have to say I liked this way more than I expected. “I’m The Answer” is really good, but oddly not the best song here. There’s also a fun clunker, “Freakers,” which sounds a little too much like “Slit Skirts,” and I suppose if I wasn’t aware of Pete’s song, I’d have liked this one more.

Speaking of Pete, he’s a bit of a double-edged sword.

Listening to the album, I wonder how this would have been received if Simon had adopted an alias and simply leveraged Pete’s name as producer. We’ll never know. I suspect it helped land the deal with Polydor, and to be fair, the label gave him a second shot with Simon Townshend’s Moving Target in ’85, but that would be it.

It's decent album, that has some interesting songs. Is it a lost classic? No. Is it worth listening to? Yes. Still I've heard worse, and frankly I had expected to find Simon on the streaming services, but alas, it seems Polydor hasn’t licensed Sweet Sound and has effectively relegated a fine album to the eternal remainder bin.