As Universal Music Group and other sources report, that label will reissue The Who’s probably best album Who’s Next in a series of deluxe editions that will incorporate the band’s abandoned Life House project. The release date is set for September 15, 2023.
Pete Towsend has prepared new liner notes, that describe Life House as “a portentous polemic about the coming of a nation beaten down by climate issues and pollution.”
The Super Deluxe edition of Who’s Next/Life House will contain 10 CDs, all remastered from the original tapes by longtime Who engineer Jon Astley, plus a Blu-ray audio disc with newly-created Atmos & 5.1 surround mixes of Who’s Next (and 14 bonus tracks) by Steven Wilson.
Among the 155 tracks on the Super Deluxe edition are Townshend’s demos for Life House; The Who’s 1971 session recordings at the Record Plant in New York; sessions at Olympic Studios in London from 1970-1972; and, for the first time, two newly mixed and complete 1971 concerts from London’s Young Vic Theatre and San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium.
The box set also contains a 100-page hardback book containing Townshend’s introduction and new sleeve notes. Also included is Life House – The Graphic Novel, a newly commissioned, 170-page hardback book overseen by Townshend that tells the story behind the project. Completing the set are reproductions of two gig posters and two concert programs, plus pin badges and a color photo of The Who with printed autographs.
The set will also be available as limited edition 4-LP and 3-LP sets, featuring, respectively, the first-ever complete release of the San Francisco concert from 1971 and vinyl replicas of Townshend’s original Life House. The original Who’s Next album will also be available as a single LP half-speed remaster completed at Abbey Road Studios and in other exclusive single vinyl versions.
