Pete Townshend and The Who have been writing and making music for over 50 years; their newest release is a massive set titled “Who’s Next/Life House”.  The set retails for nearly $300 (listed at $257 on Amazon).

The collection includes 155 tracks – 89 of which have never been released; another 57 are remixes.  Included in the songs are Townshend’s predictions of the internet, virtual reality, and a global pandemic.

The collection stems from a project that was started in 1969 after  the release of the rock opera “Tommy” and eventually spawned the 1971 album “Who’s Next”.  As a result, there is a massive amount of material that has never seen the musical light of day…until now.

Townshend describes the epic as “a portentous polemic about the coming of a nation beaten down by climate issues and pollution.” He continues, “an opportunist and autocratic government enforce a national lock-down in which every person is hooked up to an entertainment grid.  Music itself then becomes an inconvenient diversion, a very real distraction to the subjugation of the population in suits with fascinating consequences. Songs that depicted a dystopian world in which faceless corporations control our lives may have been fiction at the time, but they have come to be more like documentary.”

While “Who’s Next/Life House” comes in a variety of formats; the Super Deluxe edition with all 155 songs  is chocked full of goodies, including:
-10 remastered CD’s using the original master tapes
-a Blu-ray audio disc of mixes and 14 bonus tracks
-a 100 page hardcover book with an introduction by Townshend and new sleeve notes
a 170 page behind the scenes “Life House” Graphic Novel
-two posters
– two concert programs from 1971
-collectible pins
-an 8×10 band photo with printed autographs.

A limited edition four LP set, a three LP set, and a re-mastered edition of the original album are also available.