by William Ruhlmann
Though it is billed as an "Original Soundtrack Recording," McVicar is in effect a Roger Daltrey solo album. Daltrey, who starred in the film and co-produced it, sings on eight of the ten tracks. McVicar was Roger Daltrey's highest charting non-Who project, and for a simple reason: it sounds a lot like The Who. On his three previous solo albums, Daltrey had gone out of his way to avoid the hard rock sound of The Who. But here, using a set of backup musicians that included all the other members of the group -- Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Kenney Jones -- Daltrey employed his usual arena-shaking shout over Who-like music. Daltrey sounded more comfortable with such material than he had with the sometimes delicate pop of his other solo records, and you could hear his delight when he had a song like Russ Ballard's "My Time Is Gonna Come," more unadulterated hard rock, to work with. For Who fans, who had gone nearly two years without a new Who album, the soundtrack to McVicar was the next best thing.