The Who
Who Are You - Deluxe Edition

The monumental reissue of Who Are You is much more than a simple remaster: it’s a journey into the fragile and brilliant soul of the Who at the dawn of the end. This Super Deluxe box set — made up of seven CDs, a high-resolution Blu-ray mix, and a book teeming with photographs and notes — meticulously reconstructs the final era with Keith Moon, portraying a band teetering between exhaustion and creativity.

The restoration work gives the album new depth: sharper guitars, more natural vocals, bass and drums finally freed from the original compression. Released in 1978, Who Are You marks the transition from instinctive rock to more complex, reflective songwriting. It’s the record of a mature group, aware of its own greatness but also of the limits imposed by time and excess.

Among the nine tracks, the confrontational “New Song”, the melancholy “Love Is Coming Down”, and “Sister Disco”, which looks inquisitively toward electronic music, stand out. But it’s the title track that embodies Pete Townshend’s genius: an autobiographical tale born from a night of excess, which became a classic with its relentless pace and near-cinematic structure.

The most valuable section of the box lies in the demos and alternate versions curated by Steven Wilson: “Music Must Change” without drums, a “Who Are You” with an extra verse, and the very first “Empty Glass”, foreshadowing Townshend’s solo career. Next come the Shepperton Studios recordings, capturing the band amid mistakes, rehearsals, and lightning flashes of inspiration — the authentic portrait of a legendary group on the brink of transformation.

This definitive edition of Who Are You is not just a tribute: it is a vital document on the survival of art amidst chaos.