There had been a three-year hiatus between Who Are You in 1978, and The Who's previous studio album, The Who by Numbers (1975). The band was drifting apart during this period, members were working on various solo projects, and Keith Moon and Pete Townshend were driving deeper into drug and alcohol abuse. The initial sessions for the recording of the new LP, at the group's own Studios, produced by Glyn Johns and Jon Astley, were lackadaisical and unfocussed. But this these factors cannot be blamed on the strength of the material being recorded. Pete Townshend's home-demos for the tracks that would eventually make up the new record were anything but mediocre. Featured on this new CD in their rawest form the new songs sound fresh, original and clearly touched by the new-wave ambiance now affecting most forward-looking music from the era.