The Who’s guitarist and singer Pete Townshend shared a series of videos on Instagram, announcing that he’s working in his studio to release their abandoned record, ‘Lifehouse.’ According to his statement, the band will finally be releasing the album alongside a reissue of their ‘Who’s Next’ in 2022.
‘Lifehouse’ is an unfinished science-fiction rock opera by the Who intended as a follow-up to their fourth studio album, ‘Tommy.’ It was abandoned as a rock opera to create a traditional rock album that was later released, ‘Who’s Next’ on August 14, 1971.
The songs from the abandoned project appeared on various albums and singles by the Who as well as Pete Townshend‘s solo albums. Over the years, Townshend revived the Lifehouse concept with various projects such as his set, ‘Lifehouse Chronicles,’ and the sampler ‘Lifehouse Elements.’
However, the band never actually released ‘Lifehouse’ as an album. Recently, Pete Townshend announced that he has been working on the album and a reissue of their 1971 record, ‘Who’s Next,’ via a post on his official Instagram page.
The musician introduced his studio in the videos and revealed that the reissues of ‘Who’s Next’ and the release of ‘Lifehouse’ will be happening next year. In fact, Townshend stated that both of those albums were supposed to be released this year, but the pandemic prevented this from happening.
Pete Townshend also showed original demos for the project as the guitarist zoomed in to show a tape box containing a recording of a never-released song called ‘Ambition.’ It appears that the unreleased material from the ‘Lifehouse’ will be unearthed by the musician next year.
In his IG post, Townshend said:
“It has been three days working in my studio until five in the morning, trying to keep up with some Who demos for ‘Who’s Next’ and ‘Lifehouse’ reissue, which is happening next year. This is my studio and let me talk you through it.
So you can see that really it’s not just ‘Who’s Next’ that we’re talking about but also ‘Lifehouse,’ which should have been released this year. It’s 2021, and we missed the boat. We can blame COVID.”
Fans have been waiting for years to hear the ‘Lifehouse’ songs that the Who hasn’t released yet. While it’s disappointing to hear that both albums could’ve been released this year but weren’t, fans still will get the opportunity to get their hands on the records in 2022.
