Hosono House is the first album by Japanese multi-genre artist Haruomi Hosono. It came out in 1973 on Bellwood Records, after his band Happy End split after a short span of 3 albums.
The album is notorious for its DIY recording which took place at Hosono's home (hence the title) in Sayama. Out of inconvenience, he didn't want to go to a big city in order to book a studio and thought recording music in a domestic setting has become feasible. Session members were the band Camarel Mama, which featured Happy End's Shigeru Suzuki among other artists who would continue to collaborate with Hosono.
45 years after the album's release, Hosono rerecorded a new version of it titled Hochono House with a completely different sound and a reversed tracklist.
Tracklist:
Side A- "Rock-a-Bye My Baby"
- "Boku Wa Chotto"
- "Choo Choo Gatagoto
- "Owari No Kisetsu"
- "Fuyu Koe"
Side B
- "Party"
- "Fuku Ha Uchi Oni Ha Soto"
- "Jusho Futei Mushoku Teishunyu"
- "Koi Wa Momoiro"
- "Rose And Beast"
- "Aiaigasa (instrumental)"
This album provides examples of:
- Face on the Cover: Hosono with his long hair and his singular mustache. He sported that stache ever since he was part of his first band Apryl Fools and kept it until shaving his face clean and cutting his hair as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra. He rarely grew his facial hair back since.
- Gratuitous English: "Rock-a-bye My Baby".
- In Name Only: "Rock-a-bye My Baby" has no relation to the nursery rhyme whatsoever.
- Longest Song Goes Last: Averted with the final track "Aiaigasa" being the shortest track of the album.
- Meaningful Name: The album's name referes to the recording environment which was Hosono's actual home (he didn't want to go to a big city in order to record in an actual studio.
- Miniscule Rocking: "Aiaigasa" is the shortest track of the album, clocking at around 40 seconds.
- One-Word Title: "Party" and "Aiaigasa".
- Rearrange the Song: Due to Hosono's tendency to alter his songs when he plays them live, any song from this album got a country/soft rock treatment on recent concerts.
- Scatting: "Rock-a-bye My Baby" and "Party".
- Sequel Song: "Aiaigasa" is a song that Hosono originally wrote and recorded for the band Happy End. This "Hosono House" version only plays a slightly longer cut of the guitar intro and has a voice sample announcing the Top 20.
- Stop and Go: "Fuku Ha Uchi Oni Ha Soto".
- Trend Covers: The cover art's concept of having a black and white face with the album's title in blue can also be found on Bruce Springsteen's cover of The River and later on Mac DeMarco's second album (The inspiration isn't confirmed on Springsteen's case but Mac deliberately did it).
