On Who by Numbers, perhaps the most intensely personal recording ever made by a major group, Townshend's bitterness toward his role in the rock world was unsettling, to say the least. Lines like "Goodbye all you punks, stay young and stay high, hand me my checkbook and I'll crawl off to die" haunted the listener. Despite most songwriters' complaint that they're being over-analyzed, lines like those could only lead listeners to anticipate the next offering like a housewife eagerly awaiting the next installment of All My Children….

Townshend-watchers will be delighted that Rough Mix shows him in a slightly more healthy frame of mind than Who by Numbers. Maybe his self-imposed exile from the scene has done him good; while the songs here aren't bubbling with bright-eyed optimism, neither do they sound suicidal. The rampant pessimism seems to have made way for a jokingly ironic cynicism. If there's...