Universal Music Recordings is set to release Pete Townshend – The Studio Albums, an 8-CD box set that collects all of Pete Townshend’s solo studio albums for the first time.

Newly remastered by Jon Astley, the new set accompanies last year’s Live In Concert 1985-2001 box set. It features expanded deluxe packaging in a CD-sized box with new art by longtime Townshend collaborator Richard Evans, sleeve notes by band archivist Matt Kent, a new exclusive Townshend foreword, and rare photos and memorabilia in a 28-page book.

The box set features seven albums: Who Came First, Rough Mix (with Ronnie Lane), Empty Glass, All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, White City (A Novel), The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend, and Psychoderelict, as well as the music only version of Psychoderelict.

Townshend says of his solo studio work, “I have always written first for myself. Not as an artist but for play, for fun, for joy, for self-expression. For therapy? In a way, of course. These solo songs are therefore not Who exclusions or out-takes, they are part of a story that may well have been very different had I not made some poor decisions in the early ’80s.”

“I have stories to tell about every song, and one day I may write a book that tells of that journey, but I’m probably happier spending my time today writing new music rather than explaining how the old stuff came about,” he adds.

Source: RTT Music News